


The Monkey and the Torii

by divisionten



Series: To Infinity and Beyond [2]
Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Background Neku/Shiki but not a main plot point, Composer Sakuraba Neku, F/M, M/M, Minor Horror Elements, Youkai, asexual Vanitas, ships are not the focus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:48:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 62,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24829348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/divisionten/pseuds/divisionten
Summary: Neku Sakuraba, newly instated Conductor of Hachioji after the events in late August left him dead-cum-Angel, decides the best way to understand the district he's been put in charge of is to sneak in as a Player himself.He thought it was a good idea at the time, he really did.(Sequel/Companion story to ∞:∞ though can be read standalone)
Relationships: Kiryu "Joshua" Yoshiya/Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: To Infinity and Beyond [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1795954
Comments: 26
Kudos: 60





	1. Come to Terms

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did say I might write more in this universe.  
> Expect maybe a chapter a month (they're long), though I'll post them when they are done.  
> If you haven't read infinity:infinity and want to just jump in, here's the TLDR that’s relevant to this fic (nothing else about it will be mentioned):  
> After Neku's game, Joshua revealed himself to his own Reapers in Shibuya, instated Rhyme as his new Conductor, and changed the rules of their game significantly. Reapers no longer fight for points/hunt Players and work alongside them instead to issue challenges.  
> Hanekoma, for his betrayal to the Angels, was plucked of his feathers, significantly handicapping his powers. He's now the Conductor of Hachioji, where Neku actually lives. (Neku just hangs out in Shibuya a lot and goes to school there.)  
> Joshua made friends with some of the other angels from different districts, and shares an apartment with two of them, since Angels ignore district walls (Hanekoma, being plucked, is stuck in Hachioji)  
> Sora, Riku's Replica, and Vanitas, having all died at the end of KH3, ended up in Joshua's new Shibuya. Sora and Riku's Replica (who goes by Tomo), eventually elected to be returned to life, but Vanitas, feeling he needed time to adjust after being Xehanort's lapdog for so long, elected to stay behind in Shibuya as a Reaper, living with Joshua and his two angel friends. He works at Lapin Angelique and fights large Noise that’s a problem for most Reaper grunts, since he has a Keyblade and his Unversed.  
> One of Joshua's new angel friends, Gabriel, invented goggles that allow the living to see the Underground. Anyone wearing them can see, hear, and touch Underground objects, though they can’t use Psychs themselves.  
> Neku died saving his friends in an incident with the reaper-gone-rogue Coco in Shinjuku. To thank him for his service, the Higher Ups made him an angel. He was granted Hachioji as his home ground. He’s still… very shaky with his angel powers.

Vanitas stared angrily at the rice cooker. Steam billowed from the tiny hole in the lid as the device screamed at him, then clicked loudly once and went silent.

He jumped.

Gabriel gave him a smile that was simultaneously reassuring and pitying. “Just means the rice is done, Vanitas. That’s **_supposed_** to happen. Now, open the lid and let’s get this turned out to a bowl so we can fan it and add the vineg-”

“ ** _WHAT THE FUCK, JOSH_**?”

Vanitas and Gabriel both winced in unison. “I’ll do this. You go break up the train wreck in progress.” Gabriel sighed. “Josh’ll listen to me, but it’s Neku who’s going to need calming down. If Josh were pissed, the apartment bock wouldn’t be **_here_** anymore.”

Vanitas frowned, grabbing the skittering Flood at his feet by its scruff, throwing the beast on a shoulder. “Wait for me for anything after.”

“The rice has to cool before we can make sushi, and I can’t dilate time,” Gabriel Insisted. “Go on.”

* * *

“No. I’m not doing it.”

At least Neku wasn’t screaming anymore. Vanitas was fairly sure if he were alive, his ears would have been bleeding. He was quickly learning that the only thing more annoying than a powerful angel was one still learning how to keep themselves in check.

“Hey, Vanitas,” Joshua said cooly, as if he didn’t notice the fuming angel opposite him at the low table in the middle of the room.

Fuming as in both **_angry_** and **_currently on fire_**.

“Don’t you bring someone else into this,” Neku huffed.

“Would you care to explain to Neku what you’ve been asking me to do three times a week?”

Vanitas wrung his hands, breaking eye contact with them both.

“Wait,” Neku said, extinguishing himself in his sudden realization. “You… **_ask_** … for it?”

Vanitas had half a mind to ask for reincarnation right there so he could leave this world on the spot.

Joshua’s feathers puffed up. For a moment, Vanitas thought he was mad, but realized quickly the blonde was embarrassed. “I… **_oh_**. You never said to keep it a secret and Uri and Gabe knew…”

Vanitas sighed down at sat nearer to Neku than Josh. “I’ve been asking Joshua to imprint on me a few times a week to help me manage my emotions and anxiety. It’s working, but I have a long way to go.”

Neku blinked twice.

“A tool is a **_tool_** , Neku,” Joshua said sternly. “Nearly every tool has beneficial uses. Dynamite was meant for mining, after all.”

Vanitas howled with laughter at his realization of what was happening. He couldn’t help it, heck, that was the next thing on his list of wayward emotions he wanted to work on controlling correctly as his parrot Unversed unleashed on his shoulder, howling with him. Eventually, he exhaled out, smiling lightly, the brightly colored bird’s own shrieks slowly quieting alongside his own. “Let me guess. You told Neku he needed to learn to imprint, and Neku, you said no. **_Violently_**.”

“I… I would have to practice on a **_person_** ,” Neku admitted. “I got into a fight with Mr. H about it too.”

“The last thing you need is a Player or Reaper in hysterics that you can’t calm down,” Joshua said lazily. “A human might have a knife on them. A Reaper could accidentally take out a city block. And sometimes… well. It’s not often- but sometimes there’s a person who can only be dealt with via extraordinary measures.”

“Mr. H said the same thing,” Neku admitted. “I just snapped at him and he told me to go talk to a few other angels about it.”

“I’ll say the same,” Gabriel shot from downstairs. “Sometimes it’s the only way I can help set a reaper’s broken wing. Uri’ll agree too.”

Neku pulled himself inward, blanketing himself in his own wings. “I still don’t **_like_** it.”

“Then **_remember_** that feeling,” Joshua said with a tsk-ing motion. “It’ll keep you honest. You’re a being of nearly infinite power. You remember it took an act of God to take down one high ranked Reaper. How many angels would need to fight **_you_** if you went rogue?”

Neku sighed. “How long until I’m used to this?”

Joshua shrugged. “Think that’s a question for other former humans. I kind of just… existed one day. So yeah. Practice with someone who trusts you. And more than one person. You’ll get used to dealing with them specifically and make mistakes.”

Neku’s shoulder slumped, defeated. “What, you gonna let me imprint on you?”

“Sure, why not?” Joshua shrugged.

Vanitas huffed. “You can use me too. Just don’t make me embarrass myself in public.”

Neku’s wings curled further inward. “I don’t want to **_make_** you do anything.”

“So, who tested out my pins for Shinjuku again?” Joshua asked with a sharp grin. “I remember someone insisting on being my guinea pig last month.”

“Fuck off, Josh,” Neku groaned. This time, he had no bite to his voice.

“How **_do_** angels fuck, exactly?” Vanitas said with a grin. “You don’t have any… **_well_** ,” Vanitas gestured vaguely in Joshua’s direction. “Neku, do you?”

“Of **_course_** I have a… wait. I only have one because I think I do, right?”

Joshua let loose a Cheshire cat grin. “ ** _Bingo_** , heck if you wanna be a girl, nothing stopping you. Or try being a duck! I hear theirs are **_corkscrews_**.”

Neku turned a shade of crimson all the way through his feathers.

“Seriously, though. You’re going to have to practice changing your body, too, now that you’ve got it under control. If nothing else, you can’t look like a sixteen-year-old forever, at least while your parents are alive and you’re under their roof.”

“I **_know_** that,” Neku huffed. “‘S just another thing I don’t want to think about. Hanekoma is having an all hands meeting in ten days to formally introduce me as the new Composer and I am **_not_** ready for this. My Reapers have all been doing it way longer than me.”

“One step at a time, Neku. Wouldn’t have asked for that assignment for you if I didn’t think you couldn’t do it.”

* * *

Joshua sat opposite Neku, the following Monday evening. They were in Hachioji, in Hanekoma’s apartment above his café, a tarp lining half the room with ten canvases in different states of completion.

Neku inhaled, staring awkwardly at the angel opposite. “How the… how do I even start?”

“Well, we’re doing this in Hachioji for a reason. This is your domain now, so you’re at your most powerful here. And it’s not Shibuya, so I’m not omnipotent.”

“I figured that much,” Neku muttered. “Being here just… it **_feels_** different. I’ve started hearing the city, if that makes sense. Like, the whole thing, like it’s something alive.”

Joshua nodded. “It’s a part of you now. You can tune into it more or less as you get used to it. Ignore it or hear the entire city’s thoughts at once. Change the mood, change the weather.”

“That would explain the freak thunderstorm last night when I got mad at my homework.”

Neku pointed to the pile of canvases. One was snapped in half.

“You could fix that with a thought, you know.”

Neku nodded, looking at the pile. “I **_know_**. But right now, it’s a reminder of my failure. When I get out of my artist’s block, I’ll repair it.”

“What was the theme?”

“Seeing through someone else’s’ eyes. Like, paint a picture of something on TV or through a camera phone lens. It’s about distortion.”

Joshua chuckled. “Well, I’m right here.”

“You can’t paint for shit, and I’m not tuning in work that’s not mine.”

“Neku, I mean **_use_** me to paint. You’re right. In your so eloquent words, I cannot paint for shit. That’s not **_my_** art; I sing. You kill two birds with one stone this way. You’ll know if you’re imprinting right because it won’t look like a kid did it.”

“Most kids paint better than you.”

“See? Proof.” Joshua leaned lazily backwards on the cushioned sofa; his wings slotted into divots meant just for the purpose. “Missed this thing. I used to crash with Hanekoma at WildKat before I got the apartment with the other angels, you know.”

Neku exhaled and where there was a pile of wood splinters stood a clean blank canvas. He flicked a finger and it found itself neatly on the easel in the middle of the tarp. “At least my powers aren’t that much different than using pins. Learning curve hasn’t been bad.”

Neku shook out his head, looking backwards to Joshua, who was willing his infinite eyes onto and off his exposed skin, likely in a bid to creep Neku out. Too bad the newly minted angel had done the same earlier that day when he’d been getting dressed for school. Ignoring the weirdness of it, Neku spoke as authoritatively as he could muster. “Okay. What do I do?”

Joshua stopped examining his nails, the extra eyes receding away in an instant. He almost looked like he was pouting. “Well, there’s a few ways to induce someone. You could make a pin, like the O-pins or the ones we used to make the human wall in Shinjuku.”

“I’m still learning Angel language. No.”

“Or you can do what I do on individuals and do verbal suggestion. Or how Gabriel induces people.”

“How does she do it?”

“Prefer a demo, I know how? But you might not actually go under since you’re the Composer and all.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Joshua stood up, put a hand on Neku’s cheek and another on his shoulder, and jerked his wrists in opposite directions. Neku went completely boneless, falling into Joshua’s arms.

Joshua snapped in front of his face a few times before Neku blinked, groggily wiping a trail of saliva on the back of his hand.

“Like **_that_**.”

“Ugh. That felt like the pin. Like I wasn’t in my body.”

“All of them will feel that way to the imprinted person. Unless you specifically dictate how their consciousness feels.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Not asking you to. Your turn.”

“I’ll… try talking you through.” Neku sighed. “Show me that.”

“It’s actually a bit harder that way. You need to put your voice on multiple frequencies at once. But here.” Joshua sighed and sat back down, crossing one leg over another like a therapist in every movie Neku had seen. “Sit on the couch before you fall on your face.”

Neku lifted his wings, resting them over the back of the couch, and exhaled.

“Neku, look at me.” Neku could hear a honey-sweet chorus behind Joshua’s words. He’d heard him imprint this way before, when they were in the arcade as a big group and Vanitas had a panic attack. But he’d never had it directed at **_him_** before. It was soft, and gentle, and he **_listened_**.

“Now hold your breath.”

Neku stopped breathing. He didn’t need to breathe, not anymore. But, quickly, he felt the pain in his chest of the **_feeling_** that he needed to.

He exhaled.

Suddenly, he felt in control of himself again.

“You broke it, not bad.”

“Yeah, well you made me **_stop breathing_**.”

“I’m good enough that if you were alive you would have died by asphyxiation.” Joshua’s face was unreadable.

“But you wouldn’t.”

“I mean, I wasn’t going to quit for **_you_**. But I know what an angel can handle.”

“If you want me to get mad at you, it’s working.”

“Fantastic, then, direct your anger at me.” Joshua smiled.

“The last time I got pissed, Haniel had to help me wind back time on my entire bedroom. Least Mom was out grocery shopping. I’m not sure I have it in me to wipe memories either.”

“So **_that’s_** why you do your art here.”

“Nah, I never did it in the house. Parents weren’t happy with the mess. Or even that I was more interested in art. Mom was ecstatic when Mr. H stopped by to offer the ‘empty space above his shop’ to me as a studio. Bonus is that he sometimes puts my work up in the café. I’ve been using it as a starting point for influencing Hachioji.”

“So, you’re **_imprinting_**.”

Neku froze. “I… guess I am. But I’m not… **_forcing_** people. Just pouring a little of my own soul in the art.”

“Yeah, well, all this is, is pouring a whole lot more nudging in. How do you do it?”

“Strings.” Neku sat in front of the blank canvas. “Like… there’s a string connecting my hand to my brush, and another one to the canvas. I just… kind of send a bit of myself through it. Like an internet cable.”

“You mean like a **_marionette_** wire, Neku.”

Neku dropped his brush, horrified. “I am… I **_am_** doing this to people, aren’t I?”

“So? People influence each other all the time. You’re **_nudging_** them, not possessing them. Neku, you’re an angel now, and you’ve got a city to protect.”

“I didn’t… I didn’t ask for this.” Neku slumped forward, sliding off his stool, down onto the paint- flecked tarp.

“Neku, I have a feeling that you have enough Imagination that even though you couldn’t play the game when you died, the Angels might have come for you anyway. I don’t think it was a matter of **_if_** here. Just **_when_**. So, either you can rule this place with some ethics, or you can turn into what I was before you gave me a good mental smack to the pavement. Your choice. I know you’re going to say, ‘I don’t like it’,” Joshua added, mimicking Neku’s voice exactly as he irritably intoned the words, “but **_tough deal_**. That’ll keep you honest.”

Neku stood up, flapped his wings twice for balance, and put his hands on Joshua’s shoulders, pushing him to the stool in front of the easel. “Last chance to back out then.”

Joshua relaxed, his own wings sweeping lazily on the ground at his sides. “Just do it.”

Neku thought of the strings, this time, in greater numbers and with far more force. They extended from his fingertips, aiming for the teenage-looking eldritch horror sitting on the stool in front of him, back exposed and trusting him completely.

“Just like the game,” Neku muttered below the audible spectrum. “Trust my partner.”

Joshua felt like he was being squeezed by a million steel cables but didn’t attempt to break free. Not unless he felt it was going to be a problem; Neku could learn finesse later. Right now, the newly minted angel just needed to learn how to imprint. Joshua could ignore the pain, at least the first few times; he just knew he’d tease the other mercilessly later once Neku got his own magic down to a science. Or an **_art_** , as it were.

He felt a jerking tug on the writing mass of cabling and sat up straight. It wasn’t an order, not like how **_he_** gave it, but he could feel Neku trying to correct his absurdly lax posture.

“Joshua…” Neku said in worried shock. “You’re… crying.”

And suddenly the cables were gone.

* * *

The next thing Joshua realized was Hanekoma looming over him on the couch, ice on his head and a gentle and familiar set of hands running through his right wing, his left tucked around him like a blanket.

“Sanae,” Joshua hissed, dropping any formalities now that his relationship with the barista was known to all parties present, until he spied two unknown Reapers passed out on a futon on the floor. They were in casual clothing, so at least they were off the clock, unless wearing whatever they wanted was the uniform for reapers here. The hoodies were kind of a Shibuya and Shinjuku thing; Joshua didn’t know too many of the other Grounds, but he did know the Reapers in Chiyoda cosplayed.

“Wasn’t the kid. Was me,” Hanekoma gruffed out. “Neku came down to the shop in a panic. I tried to calm him, but, well, he’s not the only one whose powers don’t do what they’re told.” Hanekoma guiltily unfolded a plucked wing. “They’re a bit haywire. Knocked you out too, boss. And two off duty Reapers. Just glad there weren’t any players or living people in the shop.”

“Not your boss anymore, Sanae.”

“Well, maybe so, but you outrank me now, so gotta give deference where it’s due.”

“Shove it,” Joshua said playfully as he slowly shifted up, moving the wing out from under Hanekoma’s soothing ministrations. Neku was dead to the world in Hanekoma’s hammock overhead, wings twitching erratically as he snored. “Did miss the preening though, ugh, Gabe just can’t do it like you can. How about we swap, and you tell me what I missed? Those boiled chicken wings **_have_** to itch.”

* * *

“My mouth tases like coffee,” Neku whined overhead. “What the fuck… where…”

“I… uh… used too much juice, Boss. Sorry about that. Use your telekinesis to let yourself down or I’ll get’cha.”

“Josh?” Neku asked in a bit of a panic.

“Here, totally fine, thanks. Neku, if there really were a problem, don’t you think I would have said something?”

Neku shifted upright in the hammock, wobbled, and face planted onto the hardwood floor, jerking the other two Reapers awake and scared. One grabbed the other tightly, shoving their head into the others’ chest.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Neku said soothingly, as he pulled himself upright and tucked his wings high up on his back. He walked forward and shyly offered an arm. “Er, I think the bigger question is **_are you two okay_**?”

“Angel!” a one squeaked, frozen in fear.

Neku looked behind him before realizing he was the person they were talking to. Josh had shifted his own wings to look like a Reaper’s, and the two were already familiar with their fallen-angel Conductor.

“Er. Yeah. Hi.” Neku scratched the back of his neck, a bit at a loss for words. “Shit. Um. Well.”

Neku plopped on the floor, lowering himself to their eye level. “Uh. So. Hi. I’m Neku. I’m the new Composer of Hachioji. Y-you’re not in trouble. I was working on some art up here and… let’s say my powers went haywire and leave it at that.”

Neku held out a hand. “So, uh, what’s your name? Mr. H., you’ll call their superior officer and let them know they’re off the hook, right?”

“On it, boss.” Hanekoma stood up, ruffled Neku’s hair casually, and strode downstairs to give them some quiet.

“You’re our new Composer?” the other Reaper asked quietly, twirling a lock of hair. Their voices sounded similar, and they looked it, too. Siblings, perhaps?

“Yeah, I got transferred about a month ago. Like… end of August? There was going to be a formal introduction at the next all-hands meeting, but, **_uh_**. Sorry about that. I’m still not used to overseeing the city, so Mr. H. was holding off ‘till I got a handle on it.”

“Nana.” The girl who had buried her head in the other sat upright, relaxing her wings into a half fold. Neku recognized that pose from the Reapers he knew; it signified they were calm and alert. Hanekoma had done him a solid by messing with his hair, too; it made him seem more casual.

“That your name?” Neku asked the girl who had replied, to a quick nod from Nana.

“And I’m Hachi,” said the other one.

“Uh… is it bad etiquette here for me to be this candid with you guys? Sorry. I’m used to the Shibuya and Shinjuku Reapers.”

“Ugh. You’re too cute. I bet you’re the wrong century for me,” Hachi whined, smiling. “Everyone’s either extremely young, or hundreds of years old… like a certain Mister Hanekoma,” she added, with a glare at the stairwell.

Neku blushed. “Uh.”

“This is your city now, your Reapers are going to see you with rose tinted glasses,” Joshua said, languidly on the sofa. “ ** _I’m_** going downstairs and getting some tea.”

Neku watched as Joshua passed, sliding down the banister to the café below. “One of my - ** _ahem_** \- Reaper friends from Shibuya. He’s been helping me make the transition here,” Neku said, glaring at Joshua for ditching him.

“He can leave his district?”

“It’s possible, under certain conditions. I’m not sure if you heard what happened in Shinjuku over the summer.”

The two reapers stood as Neku did the same, shaking their heads.

“I’ll give the long version at the hands-on meeting. But the short version is the district Producer and Conductor conspired against their Composer, making the games unwinnable for players and deadly for the Reapers. It was… a problem. I got caught up in it. I… ah, it doesn’t do any good to skirt the truth here. I got turned into an Angel because of what happened there. So, I’m pretty new to my powers. And I’m not nearly as old or seasoned as people like Mr. H.”

Nana looked at him with some surprise. The two girls did look roughly Neku’s age, but so did Joshua, at least his ‘normal’ face did. “Oh right… Reapers can become Angels can’t they? Mr. H told us that’s why his wings are all weird. They’re black like a Reaper’s is but they look like brid wings with all the feathers off.”

“He’ll get his own powers back, eventually, when they regrow,” Neku admitted with a nod. “But he’s old hat at this. How are you finding him as Conductor?”

“Ugh. Way better than the last one. And you’re already miles better than our last Composer,” Nana admitted.

“And better looking,” Hachi said under her breath.

Neku turned pink clear through his hair and wings and the two girls laughed, realizing at least that they were used to having a Composer that they knew. Haniel seemed to be elusive as a Producer, though. “So, uh. Sorry about you two getting caught up in this.”

“Not a problem at all,” Hachi said, turning to the stack of canvases. “So, this is what you were working on? It and some of the new pieces downstairs didn’t seem like Mr. H’s art. Didn’t even realize you were up here.”

“Yeah, I… ugh,” Neku couldn’t lie to these two like Joshua had so cooly done to his Reapers for who-knows-how-long before he’d been his Game proxy. “It’s for a high school project.”

“Wait, you still go to **_school_**?” Hachi nudged Nana in the ribs.

“Right, you guys don’t,” Neku said with a nod. “My parents don’t even know I ever died. So uh, yeah. I have been.”

“You could just disappear. Why bother with it?” Hachi asked, cocking her head to one side.

“I… kinda like school,” Neku admitted. “And it’s in Shibuya. Er, sorry to hold that over your heads. Angels aren’t bound by the district walls.”

“Your family there too, huh?” Nana asked. “Mine is. We were out here visiting the park after going to the Ghibli Museum and got hit by a truck. My bad. Do miss my sis, though.”

Neku wasn’t going to sort through that can of worms as he plopped himself on the stool in front of his canvas, whining out a sigh.

Hachi giggled behind her hand. “So, what’s the project? Looks like you’ve got some bad artist’s block, Mister Teenage Angel.”

“Ugh, it’s due tomorrow too, and I still suck at stopping time.”

“What is your specialty?”

“Pissing people off,” Neku said with a lopsided grin. “It’s… pouring my Soul in my art. Though I’m still working on other things. I’m pretty good at pyrokinesis.”

“Just do a wood burning,” Nana said playfully.

“I… I was practicing imprinting when you guys got hit with collateral. Well, not mine. Mr. H. knocked out everyone in the building when I panicked because I thought I was hurting J- Yoshiya. My friend from Shibuya.”

“Lemme guess, he told you to practice on him.”

“Y-yeah.”

“If you became an angel by being a Reaper, you played the Game at one point, didn’t you?”

“Yeah…?” Neku looked at the two girls, not quite catching on. “He was my partner back then. A right bastard, too.” Neku chuckled at that.

“Trust your partners,” they said in unison, before Nana added. “He trusts you enough to let you practice **_imprinting_** on him. If you’re our Composer you’ve gotta be able to handle some pretty tough stuff. We might have hated Zeke- our last Composer- but we did **_respect_** the old fart.”

 ** _Partners_**. Neku realized they’d emphasized a plural and sighed, realizing Hachioji wasn’t just going to be a knockoff version of Shibuya.

“We did,” Hachi admitted, bringing him back to reality. “And when a new Reaper flew into a panic or a rage, or needed someone to pull them back to reality, he was there.”

“Jo- Yoshiya told me the same thing. I just… I don’t like possessing people. It makes me uncomfortable.”

“Isn’t that better than enjoying it?” Hachi asked. “Our last Conductor did; why, it’s why Zeke got him fired. And, I do mean that **_literally_**.”

Neku sighed but got up from the stool. “Yeah. It is. And I trust him. Yoshiya I mean. I’m not sure I could ever trust someone who possesses people for the fun of it.”

“And he trusts you. Just so you know, you can practice imprinting on **_me_** anytime, Neku.” Hachi grinned wide.

“Hachi!” Neku said, embarrassed.

“Don’t worry, I am **_way_** too old for you,” Hachi said grinning. “Nana, though…”

“How old are you, exactly?” Neku spluttered. “You two almost look like twins.”

“Hachi’s my grandma,” Nana replied, nudging her. “We died together and played the game together. She’s been trying to set me up with a boy ever since. Jeez, G-mom. I’m not dating an angel. Even if he **_was_** a human once.”

“For eff’s sake!” Neku cried. “Come on! Ugh, okay. I deserved all that. Let’s go downstairs and raid Mr. H’s sandwich case, my treat. Then I’m sending you two back to your assignments or your dorms.”

“So you can possess your boyfriend to paint?” Hachi asked, clearly egging Neku on.

“He’s not my-“

“You smell a ton like him,” Hachi insisted.

“I… Ugh! **_This is not fair_**! You’re doing this to embarrass me!”

“Damn right I am, kiddo,” Hachi said, smiling. “I’m not letting you off easy.”

* * *

“You doing better, Neku?”

Joshua rolled his shoulders, and his wings adjusted back to his true feathered ones, draped along the couch.

“You **_ditched_** me,” Neku pouted, inhaling a sandwich, a thermos of Hanekoma’s coffee on the table next to him. “That was super low.”

“You made some friends though.”

“No, some grandma was trying to set me up with her dead granddaughter.”

“I owe Sanae 5,000 yen,” Joshua pouted. “Thought they were **_mother_** and daughter.”

“Ugh!” Neku threw his hands in the air. “ ** _Everyone_** today. Really. At this point I’m going to have to change my face and name so I don’t f- so I don’t embarrass myself at the all-hands.”

“I mean you **_can_** practice that instead.”

“Another day,” Neku said, defeated, not even wanting to think about shapeshifting. “Right now, I have something I didn’t finish.”

“Mhmm. And, just an F-Y-I, if you think I’m in pain, read my mind while you’re doing it,” Joshua said, walking rover and siding onto the stool in front of the still blank canvas. “Night’s burning fast, Neku. Your parents’ll start texting you soon.”

“I **_hate_** you,” Neku sighed.

“Nothing about not wanting to read my mind too?” Joshua asked, egging Neku on.

“I did that enough times in the Game; I can’t say I’m above doing it,” Neku insisted. “Now, uh. Relax or something. I’ll try being less forceful this time.”

“Just read my surface thoughts,” Joshua insisted “Unless you want to relive some **_really_** weird porn.”

Neku blanched, and Joshua gave him a mental tap.

 ** _Just kidding, Neku. Tried to lighten the mood_**.

“That’s anything but funny,” Neku whined, as he slowly let the strings out of his hands, listening to Joshua’s thoughts as he did so.

* * *

“I’m impressed. Since when did Josh learn to paint?”

Neku whipped around. Hanekoma stood behind him with his arms crossed.

“Also, I’ve literally never seen Josh this quiet or focused.”

“Yeah, well,” Neku started, before realizing he was speaking out of both his and Joshua’s mouths. “This is really weird.”

 ** _You’re not the life size puppet_** , Joshua mentally muttered.

“Awwww, I remember when you let me order you around,” Hanekoma said playfully, poking Joshua on the nose. “Neku’s playing nice?”

**_For his first time, I’m impressed. Are we done? I kind of want to stretch._ **

“Yeaaaaah, Neku, your mom’s downstairs and she’s… well. She’s **_pissed_**.”

Neku let his focus drain off his friend in a sharp panic; Joshua bounced once on the floor before he regained composure.

“You had it coming, Boss,” Hanekoma said with a small smile.

Joshua rubbed his temple, soothing the pain. “Which one of us?”

Hanekoma chucked. “Yes.”

* * *

Neku might regularly set himself on fire (on accident or otherwise), but Hiroko Sakuraba was **_fuming_**. Short, wild ginger hair (possible but extremely rare on a Japanese person and something Neku was mercilessly teased for), and a little on the round side, Hiroko was always two steps from eating someone alive when she was pissed.

“Neku do you have any idea what time it is? On a **_school_** **_night_**?”

“I… I was working on my homework!” Neku replied, flinging a finger towards the studio steps.

“I don’t care if you were talking to the Prime Minister, it’s past midnight. And you weren’t answering your phone. Be glad Mr. Hanekoma did. I’d ground you for this, but then you’d be painting in the house.”

Neku sighed. “Mom, how awake are you and Dad?”

“ ** _Extremely_** ,” Mrs. Sakuraba hissed at him, arms crossed.

“I... I think it’s time I talked to you about something important,” Neku said. “But it’s going to take a while and-”

“ ** _No_** ,” Hiroko said firmly, holding Neku’s collar still. “You’ll tell us **_tonight_**. I’m going to assume it’ll explain why you’ve been acting so odd this past month.”

Hanekoma made a shooing motion at Neku.

“Let me just… grab my phone and canvas.”

“Course, Boss,” Hanekoma said. “Don’t forget anything up there.”

Hiroko exhaled, turning to Hanekoma once Neku was out of earshot. “So, you think he’ll finally explain his superpowers to his own parents, hm?”

Hanekoma grinned. “Thanks for trusting me with the kid.”

“I’m not sure what to think right now, honestly,” Hiroko said quietly. “You didn’t explain much other than showing me your own magic. Are there, what, supervillains? Has he been fighting crime?”

“You read too many comics, Mrs. Sakuraba, it’s nothing like that.”

“Comics?” Neku asked, hopping down the stairs two at a time, art in one hand and school bag in the other.

* * *

“Mr. Hanekoma told us you have superpowers. And if that’s not what this talk was going to be about, **_well_**. We’ll make it about that.”

Neku’s wings fluffed up, and he forced himself to take a few deep breaths to try and bring calm back to both sets of shoulders.

His parents sat opposite him at the kitchen table, his mother Hiroko still in clothes, and more wired than a call center. Hanekoma must have given her some Soul-infused coffee. That or she was **_beyond_** upset.

Neku wasn’t sure which. Both was possible.

His father, Jiro, was the definition of average. Average height, average build, average haircut, average desk job. Neku and Jiro never saw eye-to-eye mostly because Neku had nothing to say to him other than the most basic of platitudes. If his father had any kind of hobbies or passions of his own, he never showed them. He just sort of… existed. It was like the world had sucked him dry of any personality at some point.

How his parents were even married to begin with was its own story.

“Yeah, that was what I wanted to bring up. Makes sense you let me run off to Mr. H’s if you knew. What did he tell you?”

“He didn’t say much. He set his hand on fire and levitated one of our water glasses when he stopped by to offer the studio space for you. Said your powers were tied to your art, and that you’d eventually tell us on your own. I almost didn’t believe him, but that night I got up around three to get a glass of water and I peeked in your bedroom. You were… well. I’m not sure **_human_** was the right word. You looked like you were made of paint. But I knew it was you, somehow. And after a few minutes, you shifted back and woke up and started sketching. I’ve noticed little things here and there since. You’ve dropped a glass, but it didn’t break. And we always seem to have just one more cup of orange juice in the carton.”

Jiro fiddled with a pale blue pajama sleeve. “I’m worried about you, son.”

Neku pulled his knees to his chest. His father rarely strung more than three words together for **_anyone_**.

“I…” Neku started. “Yeah. Um, don’t be mad about what I’m going to say but… I died last month. Mr. H. Is dead too.”

“You… **_what_**.” Hiroko said sharply. Jiro put his hand over his wife’s.

“Hear him out, Hiroko. We got into this mess because we didn’t listen.”

Neku sat, stunned.

“I… I’ll give you the whole story another time because it’s really **_really_** long,” Neku admitted. He only needed an hour or three of sleep at most now, but his parents needed some rest.

Neku fidgeted for his school bag and opened it. Two pairs of the visibility goggles had been shoved inside. Hanekoma or Joshua’s doing, Neku realized, as he passed one to each of his parents.

“Put these on,” he said nervously.

Hiroko, fit the first time in her life, had no words.

“Wings,” Jiro said on both their behalves.

Hiroko lifted and lowered the goggles a few times, sticking a finger through the five-yen coins to make sure there wasn’t some kind of trick.

“You can see the world of the dead with them on, an angel made them for me to use a while ago,” Neku explained. “They’re made from five-yen coins people wished on and tossed into Meiji Shrine, so they’ve been blessed. Look at Mr. H. with them next time.”

“He has wings too?” Hiroko asked, reaching out to touch one. Carefully, Neku shifted in his seat to free a shoulder, twisting the limb to let it splay out on the table.

“If you’re going to touch, be careful. An angel’s power comes from their wings. It… might hurt.”

Jiro looked at him. “You said you were dead. You’re an angel then?”

Neku’s mother raised a hand, looking cautiously at the gigantic primary feathers spread like open fingers, and touched one.

Neku felt a jolt all the way up his wing and into his shoulder. Worry, mixed with love.

“ ** _Mom_**!”

Hiroko snapped her own hand back, blinking out tears. “You’re afraid.”

“Of **_course_** I am,” Neku snapped. “I risked my own life to save my friends. **_This_** is what happened. I died, and God- well, **_a_** God- made me an angel.”

Hiroko stood up, and, despite her small stature, scooped Neku into her arms. “You’ll always be my baby boy,” she cried into his shoulder, pulling him into a hug and letting the full blast of his emotions from every feather touching her take hold. “This… this didn’t start in August, did it? You’ve been hiding something for a lot longer than that. You were so shut in… we couldn’t get through to you. But your father’s right. It was because I wasn’t willing to listen.”

“You thought my art was stupid,” Neku breathed into his mother’s sweater.

“No, I thought it was a hobby that was preventing you from studying, not that that’s much better. Your father wanted to encourage it and I put my foot down. He was an artist too, before we had you.”

“I wasn’t making enough money, so I quit,” Jiro said quietly, as Neku tried to life his wings off his mother to prevent her from being overwhelmed by his emotions. “You two needed reliable food on the table. After a while, I resented art.”

“Until you came home with all your projects,” Hiroko added, holding her son at arm’s length by his shoulders to look at him more closely.

“I wanted to paint with you, but… Hiroko reminded me we shouldn’t encourage it. You needed to study, get into a good school, support yourself someday.”

Neku felt a deep chill of resentment run through him and his mother let go with a sharp cry.

“I deserved that,” she muttered, rubbing her hands as Neku tried to warm himself up again, picking shards of ice from his hair.

“No, you didn’t,” Neku said, calmly. “I don’t agree with what you did, but I can at least understand **_why_**.” He didn’t need to even read his parents minds. They all just needed to talk. For once.

“That wasn’t the actual catalyst, though,” Neku said, once he’d warmed himself back up and the three of them moved to sitting on the tatami in the living room so he could spread his wings out on the floor without needing to awkwardly prop them up on a kitchen chair or phase them through it. “It was… it was after his death. My friend. We used to do art during lunch together or between classes. You remember the accident.”

“It was on the street corner. There’s still a Jizo there.”

“And **_who_** do you think keeps leaving art supplies there?” Neku asked. “You didn’t let me go to the funeral, even. **_That’s_** what did it for me.”

“It was on a school day,” Hiroko attempted to justify.

“It would have been **_one_** missed day of middle school, dammit!” Neku’s hair was on fire. Not worrying about his powers anymore, his feathers burst into flame to drive his own point home before he extinguished them. “He was my **_only_** friend. And I couldn’t even say goodbye.”

Jiro patted the corner of his eyes with his sleeve as Neku swallowed a ball of saliva.

The three of them sat in shaky silence as the wall clock continued to tick away, each second feeling like a week.

“I can’t change the past, Neku,” Hiroko finally said. “The only thing I can ask is you talk to us. And… and I’ll try and do a little more listening. So, what can I do now?”

Neku stared at her. “I don’t know. I wish Mr. H had told me he told you, or even asked me if he could. I **_wish_** you hadn’t stomped on my dreams because you were afraid, or even understood what was important to me. Fuck, **_I wish I knew you better_** , Dad. All I ever knew from you was the click of your chopsticks after dinner.”

“Then we start. Tomorrow. I’ll take a sick day, and so will you, Neku. Show us your world.” Jiro reached out his hand, and after a moment’s hesitation, Neku took it.

“We’ll go to Shibuya and Shinjuku tomorrow, then,” Neku said quietly. “I’ll show you where I died.”

* * *

“So, this is where it started.”

Neku folded his arms, starting upwards at the tag mural in Udagawa, faded from seven months of Mr. H unable to add to it. His parents looked extremely out of place among the band posters, skate shops, and teenagers.

Jiro nodded, and when Hiroko went to open her mouth, he covered it with his hand. “You tell us when it’s okay to ask questions. Otherwise, we’ll just listen.”

Neku swallowed and looked at them, feeling very out of place. “Okay. Well. You know after… after **_he_** died and the funeral, I stopped talking to people. I went here after school, mostly. Or just sort of drifted around Shibuya looking at CAT’s art. CAT’s a pretty famous street artist.”

Neku’s mother looked like she was going to burst at the seams.

“Okay, mom. You get a question.”

“He’s like that Banksy guy, right? The street artist that nobody knows who he is?”

Neku grinned a little. “Well, **_I_** know who CAT is now. I have a piece or two of his. I’m pretty sure they’re worth a small fortune.” Neku rolled his eyes as his mother looked like she wanted to say something. “No, CAT isn’t me. I’ll introduce you later.”

Neku reached up to touch the concrete wall. “I was here, exactly here, when I was shot. This was back in February, almost two years to the day after… after **_he_** was hit.”

He could see his mother about to burst with questions again but glared in a dare that she break her promise stay quiet. After a tense moment of silence, he sighed, sat down next to the mural, and patted the space next to him.

“I promise it’s clean and dry,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Angel’s honor.”

So, his parents sat, and he talked. Told them about the game, and his weeks of hell as skaters tried their best at using the stairwell’s handrail to grind. Most fell on their faces, but, oddly, none seemed to have a scratch on them.

His father noticed, after a time.

“You doing that, son?”

“Nah. Rhyme is. This is her brother’s favorite place.”

“You said the Reap- oh I’ll wait ‘till you’re done. You did say she lives in the area so she must have been brought back to life like Shiki and Yoshiya did.”

“Oof, Yoshiya,” Neku grumbled.

“Speak of the devil?” Joshua’s voice echoed from above.

“Dude, don’t do that,” Neku whined, looking up.

Joshua flapped lazily overhead, haloed by the midday sun and his own general smug attitude.

“Mom, Dad, goggles on and look up.”

“Another angel?” Hiroko asked.

“ ** _Dude_** ,” Joshua mocked, “telling living humans is a super no-no.”

“Who’s going to get me in trouble?” Neku asked with a smug grin, as Joshua landed neatly in front of them.

“Eh, good point,” he shrugged, flipping the Sakuraba’s goggles up on their foreheads.

“You can see him now because he’s on the ground, just without the wings, like me,” Neku explained, rolling his eyes. “Mom, Dad, this is the angel Joshua. Or… **_Yoshiya_**.”

“You- oh, just finish the story, Neku,” Hiroko sighed out. “This is going to get a lot more complicated.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Joshua said, plopping down on the far end next to Jiro. “Tea? Coffee?”

“Black,” Neku demanded, holding out a hand. Joshua whistled and a can of Boss flung from a nearby vending machine neatly into his waiting palm.

“It’s not theft if I put in correct change,” Joshua reassured them, though Neku knew the brat never did. Two cans of milk tea found themselves in the hands of Neku’s parents, and Neku continued the story.

* * *

“So **_that’s_** where you went when you got hit by Pi-face’s blast.”

Joshua nodded, sipping a hot lemon tea as cans accumulated at their feet. “Yeah. That attack wouldn’t have killed me, but it really drained me. I needed to lay low for a while. Just so you know, you in that other world was **_insufferable_**. I should take you sometime. You’d **_haaaaate_** him.”

“Wipe that grin off your face.”

“I mean, you do need to learn how to cross dimensions if you want to go that-a-way,” Joshua said, pointing upward. “Even if you want to be on the front lines for all eternity, you’re going to get called up there **_sometime_**.”

“Another thing I don’t want to learn but have to?”

“You got it.”

“So that whole taking the hit for me wasn’t heroic?”

“Oh, fuck no, I was still a self-centered bastard back then. Didn’t learn my lesson for another week. If you got Erased, I lost my game with Kitaniji.”

“You’re **_still_** a self-centered bastard.”

“With **_perspective_**.”

“Fair.”

Jiro laughed. “You two ended up good friends. I hope you’re showing my son the ropes.”

“Are you kidding? Neku took to magic like a fish to water. There’s just some magic skills he doesn’t want to learn, and that’s why they’re so hard for him.”

“I’m **_right here_** , Josh.”

“And you’ll stay that way if you don’t finish the story. C’mon. I don’t know anything about what happened your third Game week. I was stuck in I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Yu-Gi-Oh World most of it.”

“You had to do this **_AGAIN_**?” Hiroko asked.

Neku rubbed his temples. If he could get headaches, he was sure he’d have one by now.

* * *

“Wait,” Hiroko said, as Neku worked on his third drink and Joshua filled in the end of their story. “But… Yoshi… _Joshua_. You brought Neku back to life.”

“Sure did.”

“That was the **_first_** time I died, Mom. There was a second.”

This time, Hiroko rubbed her temples, shaking her hair in a cascade of rusty orange. “ ** _Lovely_**. Maybe we can do that half over lunch.”

* * *

“And… and that’s that, really. Since Coco killed me, I’ve been working on focusing my powers. Mr. H. is still giving me a cloak of glamor twice a week just to be on the safe side, but I’ve kept the number of arms, toes, and eyeballs to a human level for the last two weeks unless I want to change it.”

“Have you tried doing it so you’ve got like hundreds of eyeballs just under your skin?” Joshua said conspiratorially.

“Ugh! **_Gross_**! Not while I’m eating!” Neku pushed his bowl of Ken Doi’s ramen away from him and blanched. That was his fault for eating too slowly, he guessed.

“Well, it **_is_** useful,” Joshua said with a shrug. “You can see everything at once. Uriel says it’s how she’s able to mess with time. I can’t ever get it right, not even in my home district.”

“You suck at changing your face too,” Neku smirked. “Both your roommates have you beat there.”

Hiroko again looked like she wanted to burst with questions; Neku merely shook his head, cutting her off at the pass.

“Joshua has two other Composers for roommates. Uriel, who you heard is the Composer of Shinjuku, and Gabriel, who helped us, but I didn’t mention for time reasons. She runs Chiyoda and is a massive nerd. I still haven’t met her Conductor, but I’ve heard he’s nice.”

“If you think **_she’s_** an otaku…”

“Oh **_God_** ,” Neku cried, considering the implications. “Never mind. Anyway. I wanted to show you the rest of the city. You have those goggles, if you don’t mind, I can take you to the Shibuya River.”

“Excuse you, that’s **_my_** domain,” Joshua tutted. “I’m coming with.”

* * *

Neku stared upwards at the massive wall of Hanekoma’s art in the un-space below the trains, his father equally in awe.

“Wow,” Jiro hissed. “That’s. That’s something else.”

“Do I hear… violin?” Hiroko asked.

“Moooooom!”

“Sorry, Neku. Just…. What is this place?”

Joshua slowly ran his fingers over the paint, the mural rippling a little like the surface of a lake. “Every district has a place for Reapers to practice their art, whatever it is. Creativity is how our magic works. It’s what powers us. The most creative… they can become angels. I’ve always been one but it’s not out of the question for humans to elevate themselves. For those who take themselves out of the Game, there’s places for them to work on their art when they’re not on duty. And we instruct each other.”

“Neku this isn’t secretly where you-” Hiroko started, looking down the corridors in awe.

“Neku really is attending a regular art school,” Joshua said, arms pinwheeling as a flourish. “I tried to convince him to just come here during the day, but **_noooooooo_** , he wanted a ‘reeeeaaaal educaaaation’. He’s not really on scholarship, **_I’m_** paying his school fees. Consider it part of my payback for murder.”

“Joshua, that’s…”

“An **_investment_** ,” he said, cutting off Hiroko. “He’s one of the best. I wasn’t going to let mortal problems like money, or some unsympathetic parents get in the way.” He frowned and turned his back on them. “Mr. H. lets Neku use his studio above the cafe, but there should be some Reaper-only-space like this in Hachioji, too.”

“It’s out in the middle of nowhere, in **_Tangi_** ,” Neku groaned. “Over by some religious university. I could fly there, but it’s a forty-minute bus ride from the station and my wings ache just from one way. **_You_** don’t have to deal with a district that large.”

“Having a small, dense district has its issues too, especially one this expensive to live in. I still have to pay to house a few hundred Reapers, Neku. Just wait until you need to do taxes. Didn’t have to worry about this sort of thing a few centuries ago, but hey, modern problems, modern solutions.”

“You have to… pay to house them?” Jiro asked, as they walked through the busy halls, Reapers out of uniform in different rooms learning, making, dancing, cooking, or, in one exceptionally padded room, playing a tuba. Joshua popped his head in a kitchen, watching a mountain of a man show a tiny Reaper girl how to make phyllo.

“ ** _Higashizawa_**?” Neku blanched.

“He’s on some serious probation,” Joshua said as he smirked in the doorway, making sure the giant brute knew he was being watched before moving on. “I still can’t find Minamimoto or Koinishi though. Kitaniji’s soul has been reborn anew.”

“I thought he was… wait. Does that mean Erasure is reincarnation? Like the Buddhist kind?”

“Eh. Sorta. Memories are gone, soul goes back for more refining. It’s complicated. Higher ups will explain it better.”

“No, you’re going to, and now,” Neku said indignantly.

“I can’t. And don’t give me that look, Neku. I didn’t say I **_wouldn’t_**. I said I **_can’t_**. Like physically. It’s not something you can explain with any human language. Learn your angelic cants and you’ll be able to communicate it properly.”

“I- oh,” Neku muttered.

“If I tried to say it now, your ears would bleed, and your brain would fall out. **_Literally_**. You’d survive- Angel and all- but I’d be killing a lot of Reapers- and your parents- for no good reason.”

“Wait. You’re- you’re seriously **_not_** pulling my leg on that.”

Joshua brushed him off with a wave. “Ask Sanae, he’ll say the same thing. Now, come on, your own mural’s over this way, I’m sure your parents want to see that, right?”

* * *

“Lastly, here,” Joshua said, leading them into the Dead God’s Pad. “Sushi okay for everyone? Vanitas will bring it after his shift’s over. Beat, Rhyme, and Shiki are on their way, too. Uri’s still too busy, but Gabe said she’ll join us, her day’s Game is over. I have some paperwork to take care of. Feel free to raid the drinks. Neku, no ambrosia for your parents, but everything else is fair game.” Joshua snapped his fingers. “Just made it easier for you. Soft drinks in the fridge, alcohol’s been reorganized, and I put the dead-people-only stuff in my office.”

“You’re giving us some alone time?” Neku asked.

“I figured that was obvious. Others can’t come in without express permission, not even Gabe can enter without me opening the door to her.”

“Rhyme?”

“Touché, but she’ll call first. Just knock on my office when you want me.”

Joshua didn’t even bother with the formality of walking away, in one second, he was sitting on a plush couch, and the next, he was just **_gone_**. Neku and his parents were left in the spacious, bright bar with only the aquarium below them and the low hum of the bar fridges.

Neku exhaled. “So, I think you’re caught up on everything, I think. **_Now_** you can ask questions.”

“What happens if I take off these goggles?” Hiroko asked.

Neku laughed. It was the strangest first thing given how much she looked like she’d burst as he and Joshua explained the past few crazy months.

“You’d find yourself in the Shibuya station underground mall. And forget what you’d been doing for the past few minutes. Joshua was curious and had Beat try it. Should’ve seen his face. Anyway, this isn’t a real place. Well, it is real, it’s just not… tangible. Technically we’re energy in the filled-in former swamp and river that once made up Shibuya.”

“I’m not going to ask why you never told us,” Jiro said, watching the fish below him swim lazily through the glass. “I can understand **_why_**. Do you… want to quit school? Focus only on your art and your job?”

Neku shook his head. “I’m not even really doing much as Composer yet. I’ll start getting duties soon, but, even then, I have enough hours in the day. I only need an hour or two of sleep.”

“Don’t overwork yourself,” Jiro admonished, still not looking his son in the eye.

“Oh no! Angels just don’t really need sleep,” Neku said, hands up defensively. “I’m getting enough rest. I just don’t need much. Josh said I could even skip a few days entirely, if I followed that with sleeping a full evening.”

“Well,” Hiroko said, grabbing for Neku’s hand. “I think the first thing we need to do is get rid of your curfew then. If you only need to sleep an hour or two at night, I don’t see any reason to have you home by ten.”

“Just yesterday you were trying to ground me,” Neku said with a chuckle. “Is the patron deity of Hachioji still going to have rules?”

“Damn straight you are, young ma- ** _god_** ,” Hiroko insisted, back to her usual bluster and finger pointing. “I don’t care if you’re the Emperor of Japan, if you’re under my roof, there’s still rules.”

Neku laughed. “Okay, mom, what are they?”

“One, you’re to be home with us for dinner. If you can’t, I expect a text. If I don’t get a text by six I’m going to go to Mr. Hanekoma’s café or wherever in Tangi Hachioji’s equivalent of this place is and shout the Reapers down until I get a damn good answer why you didn’t follow up.”

Hiroko jabbed a finger to Neku’s chest. “Next. If you’re insisting on staying in school, you’re not letting your grades slip. And **_no cheating_**. That means no reading people’s minds on written tests. If you want to use your powers to make your art, that’s one thing, but there will be no theft under my roof, physical or intellectual.”

“Okay, **_okay_**!”

“And no shirking your Conduction-“

“ ** _Composer_**.”

“-Composer job either. If you can’t handle both, you sit down with me and Mr. Hanekoma or Joshua or another angel who knows what they’re doing more than you and we figure out how you balance all that.”

“Remember son, the point of being a manager is knowing when to delegate.”

“Oh god, are you two going to help run Hachioji?” Neku asked, mortified.

“I’m not just going to shove myself into this world,” Hiroko continued, on her steamroll, “but if you can’t handle it yourself, we are family. I **_will_** help.”

“Trust me, Neku, now that you’re in high school and out of the house, your mother’s been going stir crazy.”

Neku held his face in his hands. “This is so embarrassing,” he muttered. But he’d be lying if he weren’t also oddly happy about his mother using her abrasive personality for something constructive.

“Sounds like someone needs to help balance a real-world budget,” she said. “It might be two decades out of date, but my degree was in accounting. I only quit when we had you.”

“It would be nice to be painting again,” Jiro added. “I’m not sure how much help that would be…”

Neku surged forward, closing the distance between them. He pulled his parents into a bear hug, gently blanketing them all with his wings before realizing he’d burn them.

But he didn’t. Instead, he realized all three were sobbing. He wasn’t sure he knew where he ended and his mother or father began. His emotions, relief, sadness, worry, they all washed over each other like a warm, wet, heavy blanket.

Slowly, he lifted them, and let go. “S-Sorry. My power is in my wings and-“

“You shared that with us,” Jiro said, wiping his face with the back of his hand as he smiled softly and genuinely.

“We’re the Sakurabas. By blood or by choice,” Hiroko added. “I can’t forget that. I’m sorry I failed you, Neku. I’m so proud of what you became and who you’ll keep growing to be.”

Neku held each of their hands in one of his own, happy in the comfortable silence.

It was broken by his stomach growling loudly.

“Maybe I should go find Joshua,” Neku admitted.

His parents laughed. “Looks like our little god needs an offering,” Jiro said, to Neku’s surprise. He couldn’t remember a time when his father had ever joked.

“Oh, shove it. I need to sleep less, but I have to eat way more now. Thank **_Someone_** Mr. H has a café because I’d probably eat you two dry.”

* * *

Joshua was not working on paperwork.

Joshua was, in fact, talking with the Higher Ups. Emphasis on “higher”.

Neku entered his office to find everything completely devoid of color, nothing but monochromatic concrete. Even he and his own clothing drained as they entered, and every hair and feather stood on end. The only thing not in shades of grey was the swirling golden graffiti curled up on a cushion on top of Joshua’s normally (almost explosively) garish graffiti-soaked desk (Hanekoma’s work, for sure).

“Josh?” Neku attempted to ask, but no sound escaped his lips.

He realized he wasn’t breathing or his heart beating, either. It was an inconvenience, but still woefully uncomfortable. This wasn’t Neku’s domain. He **_could_** be hurt here.

Neku put a hand on the golden graffiti dragon…

… and was immediately blasted into the far wall.

Neku shook the daze out, noticing the room return to its normal color, the distant hum of the ice machine for the bar returned to the space. He didn’t even realize he’d missed it until it returned.

The dragon yawned, acid-white teeth on full display.

 ** _Thanks, sometimes I really lose track of time, going Upstairs_** , Joshua explained wordlessly. It felt like an auditory hug, soft but firm.

“I’m going to have to learn that too,” Neku sighed.

 ** _You are an Angel. This is what we truly look like, at least on this layer of perception. Hang on just a…_** moment,” Joshua said, as he turned back into something more human presenting mid-sentence.

“Your eyes are different sizes,” Neku noted.

“I **_hate_** shape-shifting,” Joshua admitted, pulling his phone out to look in the front facing camera and fix his face. “Get Gabe to teach you. Or Sanae. Even us natural angels aren’t perfect at all this.”

Neku’s stomach protested again.

“Sounds like you came in for a handout.”

“When you put it like that-“

“You know, I love seeing your face when you think I’m being serious. It’s **_adorable_**. Come on, I already ordered before I did my reality warping. Vanitas is probably here already.”

* * *

“You’re from… another world?” Jiro asked.

“Dad, after what you’ve seen today, this surprises you? Flood, quit it. Sit and I’ll give you a piece.”

“No, no sushi, it ate something it shouldn’t have,” Vanitas chided, pointing with his chopsticks. “No food till it gets it out of its system.”

“What could possibly-” Gabriel asked, reaching over Vanitas to swipe a kappa maki piece as Flood burped a localized earthquake.

“He got into the pin case. **_Again_**. Princess is going to keep them in a lockbox from now on. I’m only glad they didn’t come from my pay.”

“Ouch,” Neku commiserated. “How’s that thing going?”

“Sewing lessons?” Vanitas asked. “Pretty good. Princess is going to let me start doing some basic alterations in the shop. It’s weird. As I’m getting better, I can do some basic magic. Not my stuff from my old world but… I was walking around by the scramble crossing and I started reading peoples’ minds. It’s a bit too noisy for me though.”

Gabriel grinned. “We’ve been doing a stitch and bitch with some of the Shinjuku reapers staying with us. Pop by one night if you can.”

“I can’t fly that far yet, and the train’s too long,” Neku admitted. “Once I’m done for the day here, I’m going home and not coming back out.”

“I can fly to Hachioji sometimes, get out of the city proper,” she reassured. “Wait till you can fly at mach speeds though. Nothing beats the wind rushing through you.”

“You don’t mean ‘the wind in your hair’ do you?” Vanitas asked warily.

“Nu-uh,” Joshua said, stretching out, stealing a crab stick nigiri from Gabriel. “But if you want to see some green that’s not Meiji Shrine, I’ll give you a hall pass. If you’ve been good.”

“Piss off, Josh,” Vanitas said with a grin. “Or I’ll sic Princess on you.”

“Oh no, I’ll have to suffer through teatime and makeovers. The **_horror_**.”

“To clarify, I’ll sic Mama Kaede on you.”

All color drained from Joshua’s face as he squeaked out a “please don’t”, before shoving a soft-shell crab in his mouth to not have to communicate to anyone.

“Mama Kaede?” Hiroko asked. “She must be something else if she can shut up **_this_** chatterbox.”

Vanitas grinned. “One of the Reapers. A sweet woman who looks like she’s in her early twenties. Was a mother herself and died about thirty years ago. Adopts all the strays.” Vanitas pet Flood with a free hand at that, as the little beast chittered away. “I’m a Reaper but I can’t fight the way they can. My magic- or whatever you want to call it- works differently. So, I work in her shop and help the Players with their equipment.”

“Is this one of the Noise Neku was telling us about?”

“Eh, sort of. Except they come just from me specifically. I’ve always been able to do this, even when I was alive. Magic isn’t something humans on this world have, but where I’m from, it’s not uncommon.” He flicked his fingers, and a narrow, light bludgeon in the shape of a key materialized in it. “Doesn’t mean I can’t fight. But I can’t fight **_fair_**. At least, not by this world’s rules.”

“Is there… is there any danger to this? Do you have… enemies?”

“Mrs. Sakuraba, this isn’t a comic. First off, technically speaking, we’re the bad guys,” Gabriel explained, as she reached for her bottle of CC Lemon, popping the cap and letting it hiss. “Or rather, antagonists. It’s not that we don’t want to give people a second chance at life, but we aren’t truly gods who can just do anything. There’s still our own internal laws of physics we’re bound to, even if they’re not what you’re familiar with. And occasionally, there will be problems.”

“I think Coco was more than just ‘ ** _a problem_** ’,” Shiki pointed out, rubbing the bridge of her nose without dislodging her own goggles. “Or what Joshua was originally going to do to Shibuya.”

“On the cosmic scale though?” Gabriel asked. Shiki frowned as the angel continued. “Point stands. At least now they’re less frequent, and we have a network of good, powerful people to help. At the very worst, we have a few godlike creatures of our own on speed-dial,” Gabriel added, reaching over to fluff the velvet fur on Flood’s head. “I wouldn’t say you have nothing to worry about- I mean anyone can just get a heart attack tomorrow- but Neku’s not in any more danger than any random mortal is.”

“I’m still going to worry.”

“Course you are,” Gabriel insisted. “You’re a mon. It’s how I feel about all my own Reapers. They’re my kids. Speaking of. **_Neku_**. Your **_wings_**. When’d you preen last?”

“I’unno,” Neku said, suddenly self-conscious. “Mr. H did them last week? I think? I still can’t reach back there.”

“ ** _Twice a week_** , Neku,” Gabriel chided.

“I mean, I shower every day! And they don’t stink!”

“Uh-uh. Not the same thing. You don’t use bar soap to wash your hair, right? You use shampoo. So, you don’t use soap to wash your wings. Well, you can actually use dish soap for them if you actually get them like **_dirty_** -dirty, but your feathers’ll go all brittle. You need to slick them with oil. Open up.”

Neku pulled his wings around him, tighter.

“Not getting out of this one. You don’t, and I’ll tickle you.”

“ ** _Fine_**.” Neku slowly opened his wingspan.

Joshua nodded at the sofa Neku was sitting on, and the back flattened out into a chaise. “Sit up straight in the middle and fluff them out a little.”

“How do I?”

“Neku, your fly is down.”

“What- hey!” Neku shrieked, as his feathers puffed up in indignation. “You tricked me!”

“It’s no different than scaring someone to get rid of hiccups. Now sit still and try to relax. Everyone else, come here. Might as well show you all now.”

Neku sighed, as Shiki, Beat, Rhyme, and his parents circled around to watch Joshua and Gabriel manhandle his wings. Only Vanitas remained sitting, poking at the last of the kappa maki with one hand and absentmindedly petting Flood with the other.

“Now I know how **_you_** feel,” Neku commiserated.

“What, being cooed over and pet?” Vanitas asked with a smirk as he gave the little creature chin scratches.

Neku let himself drift a little. He’d already gotten the basics down from Mr. H: keep them clean, they attract Noise. Try to keep your emotions in check if someone else is allopreening because they’ll get hit with them too. Roll each shoulder in opposing directions to start expressing wing oil ( ** _gross_** ). Always remember to keep your wings up for a few minutes after being done so the oil can set. Et cet-er-a.

“What, hey!” Neku whined as Gabriel pulled at something on his right wing.

“Were you listening?”

“I was trying to space out so you all don’t get hit with emotions.”

Gabriel nodded. “So, Sanae did walk you through the basics.”

“Yeah. And ow. That hurt.”

“Maybe not all of them. You know what I just pulled on?”

“My wing.”

“Specifically.”

“No.”

“Your **_thumb_**. Or, your wing’s thumb. It’s called an alula.” Neku wiggled it, surprised as Gabriel prodded the top arch of the limb. “Your wrist is **_here_**. The whole long bone on the outer edge of your wing is actually just a big ol’ pointer finger.”

“That’s not an elbow? Hey, **_ow_**.”

“Look up avian anatomy sometime, birdbrain. Now go back to what you were doing, you have a Noise in your feathers.”

“I **_what_** ,” Neku panicked, as Flood was deposited in his lap. “Thanks, Vanitas.” Absentmindedly, he gave the beast scratches until it flopped over sideways, ignoring the too-many hands in his wings.

* * *

Neku sat at his desk at home, sketching in charcoal.

“You going to bed anytime soon?”

“It’s only midnight. I’ll probably go to bed around 4,” he answered. His father looked on awkwardly from the doorway.

“Son, if you need any-”

“Thanks dad, but no. You need sleep.”

“Are you waiting for your mother and I to go to bed so you can sneak out?”

“Is it sneaking out if you’ve given me permission?” Neku leaned back, giving his dad a cocky grin. “I just want to go for a fly. I didn’t realize how bad my wings had gotten and it feels a million times better.”

“We can help.”

Neku gulped. “It’s really awkward asking your parents to help **_bathe_** you.”

“Can you do it yourself?”

Neku’s face fell a little. “Not really. Mr. H helps when he notices, but I feel even **_more_** awkward asking him.” Neku sighed, hugging his knees to his chest. “But I can’t push you guys away. I’ll let you know. Just… be careful, okay? If I’m in a bad mood, touching my wings will really hurt you.”

“Well, call over your Shibuya friends, then,” Jiro said with a small smile. “I’m sure they’d help.”

Neku nodded absently. “I can always stop at Joshua’s after school. Gabriel’s district seems to run well so she has a lot of free time. Uriel and Joshua are still busy dealing with the fallout from Coco, I’m surprised he took time out to see us. I didn’t even tell him we were coming, but, well, Shibuya’s **_his_**. I’ve started noticing stuff like that here, too. I’m like 90% sure Mr. Yayozawa is having an affair. Any big emotional spikes like that in Hachioji… I can feel it.”

Jiro nodded quietly. “Are you… is it your job to do something about those sorts of things?”

“Sort of. People who have severe emotional discord create Noise. The graffiti looking stuff. If it gets too big and loud, well… it can hurt people. I was going to go survey and let Mr. H know if there’s any hotspots. He can’t fly right now.”

“That must bother him.”

“Yeah. I was thinking about asking Gabriel about her tandem harness.”

“Her what?”

“She said in Chiyoda new Reapers practice flying by being harnessed to someone with experience. Like tandem harnesses for skydiving. I was going to ask her for a spare and see if Mr. H. wanted a flight. He can interpret the Noise better than me, so he gets up in the air, and I get some training out of it. I’m not sure I’m good enough on my own wings to carry someone else though. He’s dead weight.”

“I’m sure when you’re ready, he’d appreciate it. He must hate being grounded.”

Neku nodded and rolled his shoulders. “I promise I’ll be in by 3. And, hey, when I’m good enough, maybe I can take you or Mom up. Hachioji’s something else from the air.”

* * *

“Sakuraba?”

Neku nervously adjusted his school polo. “Miss Hashida?”

“This is one of the most interesting ways I’ve ever seen this assignment taken,” she said. “I wasn’t sure whether to give you full marks or fail you.”

Neku’s eyes fell. “Oh.”

“I mean, by your admission, you didn’t paint this. Your friend did.”

“Y-yeah.”

“Next time you do a performance piece, you need to tape it as part of the record, Neku. I’m giving you full marks for originality, but next time include the process, not just the finished piece.”

* * *

“Okay, so what were you going for, exactly?”

“What do you mean?” Eri asked, tugging and touching as she adjusted the clothing on him. Neku still wasn’t used to the fact that that person wasn’t Shiki, even though he’d spent more time with his former Game partner in her real form than the stolen one he was currently being manhandled by for their fashion assignment. It was also weird being at school with both of them, but that was its own can of worms. They weren’t on the same art track as he was anyway, so he only saw them at lunch and between or after classes.

Neku swallowed, trying to keep himself still. “Well, I didn’t know if you ever wanted… I don’t know… someone with a different body type to model.”

“ ** _Ohhhh_** ,” Shiki said in realization as she pinned a hem down. “Shapeshifting practice.”

“Figured I’d kill two birds with one stone.”

“Stop shrugging,” Eri chided, leaning into a hip as she looked over their work. “Shiki, we need three centimeters in at the shoulder. Neku, you somehow lost even more weight. Eat more or you’ll stop existing. Wait. Do dead people actually need to eat? I’m still not used to this.”

“Yes,” Neku admitted. “I’m technically made of energy. I must be using more than I’m putting back in.”

“Well, stop that,” Eri insisted, swatting him with a plastic French curve. “But yeah, I could use some inspo. If you can shape-shift, let’s see… I dunno. Surprise me. But not while you’re in our work in progress, this is due in a week. We’ll do our next piece from whatever you want to do.”

“What if it’s an old man?” Shiki asked, sneaking a little half hug as she took the shirt off Neku, careful to make sure he wasn’t stuck with pins.

Eri shrugged. “Old men need clothes too.”

* * *

“Have I lost weight?”

Mr. H looked up from his paper, sitting half on a still behind the counter. The only current customers were two human businessmen minding their own, and a pair of off-duty Reapers constantly looking at Neku’s wings whenever they thought the Angel wasn’t looking.

“Think so,” Hanekoma replied, looking him over. “Also, you know you can put your wings on the Angel’s plane, right? Only other Angels can see them then, and it’ll take a load off your back. You’re hunching.”

“I what? Is that what you’re doing?”

“When a Player can get in the shop, yeah,” Hanekoma replied, in a sing-song Neku recognized as Angel cant.

“Ow, that still hurts my ears,” Neku whined. “Do that when I don’t have a foot in the RG, please.”

“Sorry, boss. Hang on, your ears are bleeding. Re-tune your vibe.”

Neku sighed and put himself solidly on the UG, rubbing at his ears until he healed. When he turned back to Hanekoma, a steaming cup of coffee awaited him.

“Let me know if you need anything else, Neku.”

“What do you charge for sanity?”

“Sorry, even **_you_** can’t afford that.”

“Then put whatever those Reapers want on my tab.”

“Again, sorry. I should have noticed you weren’t totally in the UG before talking Angel.”

“Don’t worry about it, your powers aren’t working right either.” Neku sighed, peering behind Hanekoma. The barista had folded his wings behind him, all wrinkly black skin like a burned-raw chicken wing. Without the giant flight feathers, they looked haphazard and awkward. “Um, I don’t know if this is out of line, but that looks painful. I can take care of your wings later.”

“Josh’s been too busy to come out here,” Hanekoma admitted.

“Josh isn’t your boss anymore, **_I_** am. And I’m **_supposed_** to be taking care of this city,” Neku insisted. “And… well. I need more practice with my own magic.”

Hanekoma just nodded. “Was waiting for you to admit that.”

* * *

“Is this what it looks like for everyone under the feathers?” Neku asked, staring down at the awkwardly bent appendage in front of him.

“Mhm. Check your own out when you molt.”

“Do they hurt?”

“Not physically. Emotionally, yeah,” Hanekoma admitted. “Feels like there’s a hole there.”

“Yeah, I’m not feeling any emotions like I did when I touched Joshua’s. Wait. This a zit?” Neku touched a welt and he and Hanekoma collectively jumped.

“Feather!” Neku said, once the shared emotion passed. “First one’s growing back in.”

Hanekoma hissed a little in pain, as Neku ghosted his fingers over the welt. “Think it’s stuck. I’m going to use a little more pressure.”

Hanekoma balled his fingers into fists as Neku pressed the sides of the protrusion like he was pooping a zit. After a tense moment, the tip of a white feather broke through skin.

Neku let go, panting though the second-hand pain. Slowly, Hanekoma flapped the wing, then reached out and ran his fingers over the fuzz. “Thanks, boss. Now, are you ready to be a proper angel, or what?”

Neku sighed. “Yeah. I’m surprised you didn’t force me to start doing all the weird stuff.”

“I was in your shoes a couple centuries ago. And I didn’t have all the modern-day baggage. Figured you’d come round to taking this seriously when you were ready. Hell, I was expecting a few years of you dicking around, not a month.”

“How old are you, anyway?”

Hanekoma stretched out, looking sappily at his new feather. “Hm. Over six hundred. Stopped counting. Now, chin up and let’s get you moving between dimensional planes.”

* * *

Neku dropped his school bag and looked at the low table set up in the living room, three cushions set up around it.

“Is it cold enough to use the kotatsu?” he asked her, eyeing the thermostat.

“Would you rather sit in the kitchen?” his mother asked, gesturing to the Western style table and chairs. “I thought you might want to rest your back after sitting at a desk all day.”

“I only have desk classes half the day,” Neku replied. “We’re in studio the rest, and I can stand or use a stool. But yeah, I’d rather sit on the floor. Thanks.”

Hiroko nodded. “Your father’s almost home. Help me set the table and then you can stretch out. Did your teachers give you trouble for missing yesterday?”

“Ifune chewed me out but I used my water magic to make my nose run for five minutes straight.”

Hiroko sighed. “Just don’t make a habit of- Neku, your uniform.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s draping on you. Like you lost a lot of weight.”

“I stopped by Mr. H’s to practice magic. Eri noticed it too.”

“Don’t go withering away completely,” Hiroko chided. “Do you need to see someone?”

“Is it that bad?”

Hiroko grabbed Neku by the shoulders and marched him to the bathroom mirror. “You tell me, young man.”

Neku looked at himself. He didn’t look right, gaunt, eyes sunken. He didn’t **_feel_** like a walking corpse, but certainly **_looked_** like one.

“I’ll.. I’ll call Gabe.”

* * *

“Neku. Sit. Still. You’re running on fumes.”

“I’m what?”

“You’re powered by your Imagination. You’ve been doing a ton of magic and not filling up. What did you **_do_**?”

“I dunno, I did a little dimension hopping today. Just practiced going up and down between the UG, RG, and angel planes.”

“Yeah, that wouldn’t do it. Not alone. I’ll give you some inspiration, hang on.”

“Give inspiration?” Neku pulled his knees to his chest. “Wait… you mean giving people inspiration passes power?”

“Duh. We’re technically muses.”

“Oh.”

“You inspired someone today, didn’t you? And harder than you should have.”

“I think so. I’m modeling for a classmate in the fashion track.”

“No, this is way more than just giving a human or two some divine insight. You either inspired like… a whole city… or another angel. Which you really shouldn’t be doing yet.”

“I… **_oh_**. Mr H. I helped him express his first feather.”

Gabriel banged her head on the kotatsu. “Of **_course_** you did. You’re probably feeding him and not even realizing it. No wonder he’s recovering from being plucked so fast. Just hold still, I’m going to give you some of my own Imagination. If you start crocheting, don’t complain. No buts. I have plenty to spare.” Gently, she placed her hands on his shoulders.

Neku perked up almost immediately. “Better?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Lots. Does that mean I shouldn’t… be near him?”

“Fuck no, just top off from one of us if you need to. You have my cell. I’m going to have a word or ten with your Producer before I fly home. They should be doing a better job of this.”

Gabriel cracked her neck, nodded, and moved to stand up.

“At least join us for dinner,” Hiroko insisted, watching nervously over the whole thing, happy to see some color and Neku’s face filled out a bit more.

Gabriel sighed and plopped back down. “Sure. But I’m borrowing Neku for the rest of the night.”

“Homework done?” Jiro asked. Neku nodded.

“Just lock up when you get in, then.”

* * *

Gabriel had Neku wait outside the precinct as she stormed in. Curious, he let himself shift over to the angel planes, his infinite eyes visible on his body and wings as he did so. Neku was starting to get used to it; he knew people adapted quickly, but **_still_**.

He listened as Gabriel seemed to rail into Haniel in Angel. He didn’t understand half of it, but the sentiment was crystal clear.

 ** _Don’t just passively observe. Your Conductor needs you. They_** (Neku assumes whoever was capital-a Above all of them) **_needed to get their sticks out of their asses and you should too._**

 ** _I’m the will of the Composer and the arbiter between Here and Beyond_** , Haniel replied. **_I don’t care how you and your Producer operate in Chiyoda. That’s not the arrangement I have with mine._**

Neku walked through the station, literally so; walls did nothing to him in that state.

Shakily, Neku spoke up. **_Well if your job is to oversee and facilitate my work, then I’m ordering you to help… to help… uh. I don’t know his name in Angel._**

Haniel and Gabriel stared at Neku. **_Told you he picks stuff up quick,_** Gabriel insisted. **_Ha-ne-ko-ma. Feathered shrine dog. Now,_** she added, addressing the shocked faux police officer. **_Are you going to disobey a direct order from your own master? I’d hope not._**

Neku fluffed up his wings, eyes focused all on Haniel. **_Can we take this to the UG at least? I suck at cant._**

Haniel and Gabriel sighed, and Neku followed them to the Underground, eyes back to just the pair on his face.

“Is that what you really wish for me?” Haniel asked.

“I mean… I’m still new. Things will change,” Neku admitted. “But right now? Hanekoma needs help and I can’t do it alone. And you? I know you want me picking up some of your duties you picked up when you lost your Composer. But you have to teach me. I’m not an angel by birth like you are. I don’t just… know what to do.”

Haniel looked curious. “You… don’t?”

Neku sighed. “You’ve never interacted with an angel that came up from humanity, did you?”

Haniel shook no. “Well, Sanae, I suppose.”

“He doesn’t count. He’s been doing this centuries. Either way, you can’t just hide from me. Do the Reapers know who you are or are you hidden from them?”

“They know I can see them. They think I’m an ESPer.”

“Do you go to the un-space at all?”

“Un-space?”

“The art place in Tangi.”

Haniel nodded. “They call it Valhalla. I teach sculpture there. But there’s a few living humans in the area aware of the UG. They teach there too.”

“So, you just hide among them. At the all-hands meeting you’re going to introduce yourself to the Reapers, proper. You and me both.”

Haniel frowned. “You’re the only one who is supposed to know of my existence, Composer. The only reason the Conductor knows of me is-“

“You had a hole, so you were filling Zeke’s job, yes. What happened to my predecessor?”

“Ezekiel erased his Composer,” Haniel replied flatly.

“I… gathered that much,” Neku replied. “Some Reapers told me two days ago the Conductor had been… incinerated. Why didn’t you stop him?”

“I agreed with the assessment. That’s what led to his promotion.”

“His… **_oh_**. He moved **_upwards_**.” Neku bit his lip. Haniel wasn’t anything like Hanekoma when Hanekoma had been Producer. Mr. H had been friendly, had a job where, even though the Shibuya Reapers didn’t know he was the boss’s boss, had a space to relax. Though if Haniel was teaching the Reapers art, even without letting them know she was the same as he’d been, she wasn’t completely detached from the world of Men. She was just… different.

“Do you not want to reveal yourself because you want to follow some code, or because you don’t want to change your position with the Reapers?” Neku asked.

“The latter.”

Haniel really was like Neku’s dad. Boring, to the point. He wondered what kind of art she made.

“Then… then you don’t have to. But I’ll introduce myself. There is one thing I’d like your help with, though, if you don’t mind?”

She relaxed, looking visibly relieved. “You’re not ordering me to reveal myself to the Reapers?”

“It bothers you that much, so no,” Neku said with a shrug. “I might change stuff about the UG, but I’m never going to press somebody to do something like that. It clearly isn’t something you want to do. If you do change your mind, though… I’ll be behind you all the way.”

Haniel bowed deeply. “Then let me hear this other request, Mr. Sakuraba.”

Neku looked sideways at a Gabriel trying to stifle a laugh. “ ** _Neku_**. **_Please_**. And uh… it’s something like this.”


	2. Now You Can Go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings: existentialism, gender dysphoria, Joshua being an ass, /extremely/ brief mentions of sexual assault
> 
> Also, I'll give a warning that doesn't show up in this chapter, but will in the next two- blood, gore. Not of any characters, but of the scenery itself, and nothing that would give it an M rating. The game is called the Horrors of Hachioji for a reason.
> 
> (a character will cut themselves out of a monster carcass, a la Drax from GoTG 2)
> 
> I'd rather be on the safe-than-sorry side on trigger warnings, so let me know if I'm over-warning or under-warning. Thanks!

Neku gave a half smile as he finished his request. “So, you think I can do that?”

Haniel looked almost through him, half in shock. “You… **_what_**?”

“I’ve been here a month, but I’ve never seen Players. Or Reapers on duty.”

“You are not in the city during the day. And that has little to do with your request.”

Neku shrugged. “I want to see what the game is like from the ground. I own this city now, and I want our games to be like Shibuya’s.”

“Changing it so drastically might be unwise, Mr. Sa- **_Neku_**. I don’t know how things are done downtown, but we are **_not_** Shibuya.”

“I don’t… I don’t mean the actual challenges or anything like that,” Neku clarified. “I mean how Reapers treat players, and each other. I’ve seen some districts,” Neku admitted, his scrutiny of other UGs a whopping two (and secondhand knowledge of a third), “and I know what I **_don’t_** want in the Game.”

“It is not a Reaper’s job to be nice,” Haniel reminded him. “It is their job to **_test_**.”

“It’s also not a Reaper’s job to be explicitly mean, either,” Neku replied sharply. “There are ways to antagonize without being an asshole. I’ve seen it done. That’s what I mean by being like Shibuya- well, Shibuya now, at least. When I was dead and in Shibuya’s game, it was… bad. The Reapers themselves were on a points system, mostly earned by erasing Players. So, you can understand that only the most ruthless were actually left standing.”

“The Reapers here do not do that. Not intentionally, at least. They attack and scare, but do not kill.”

“I still want to see it for myself. One week, either as a Reaper or a Player. I’d handicap myself appropriately, you can bind me yourself if you think it’s best.”

“If you insist, Neku,” Haniel sighed. “I’ll see it done.”

* * *

“If you’re going to do what you asked to, you’re going to need to learn to shapeshift,” Gabriel chided him as they left the station. “A cloak of glamour isn’t going to work on any of the higher ranked Reapers, they’ll see right through you. **_Literally_**.”

“Oh, I know, the first night back Mr. H. saw through the one Josh put on me. I… er. If it’s not too much trouble, can you teach me?”

“You should have asked me first **_before_** you gave your Producer such a stupid request.”

“S-sorry.”

“Humans. See, this is why I like you guys. You’re so impulsive it keeps things interesting. Of course, I’ll teach. I’ve got the rest of the night if you want to start. When were you going to sneak in anyway?”

“Mr. H told me the first day here is Sunday, not Monday… so.”

“Today’s Wednesday- practically Thursday at this point. Are you joining in **_four days_**?”

“The all-hands is Friday night, so yeah. I’ll introduce myself and let them know I’m going to be on the ground a week. Before any of them know my personality well enough. I’m not a great actor.”

“Did you really think this through? Neku, if you just jump in, you’re going to be biting way more off than you can chew.”

“I’ve been thinking about doing this since I became an angel, but yeah. I am. But so are the Reapers running this game and the Players in it.”

“It’s your funeral, Neku.”

“Yeah, basically,” he sighed. “Wanna help dig the grave?”

* * *

“Hanekoma, I’m borrowing your loft,” Gabriel yelled as she walked through the front door of the closed café.

“Could call first, you know,” his voice sulked from upstairs. “‘M working.”

“Well, can we? Otherwise I’m taking him back to Shibuya.”

“If the sound of me pressing pins doesn’t bother you, sure.”

Neku followed Gabriel up the steps, two at a time. Hanekoma was crouched over a work desk, a second feather threatening to break through skin next to the first. He slammed down hard on a hand operated pin machine, then let it slacken as the vice opened.

“Nice,” Neku admitted, looking over the art on the face. “You haven’t lost your touch.”

“Gotta keep my skills up,” Hanekoma admitted. “I sell ‘em in the shop to Players, too, but the Reapers in the district can’t use ‘em.”

“Too powerful?”

“Nah, I could make weaker Psychs if I wanted. It’s just not the way the district works. I’m actually the only one who sells pins.”

“No pins?” Neku asked.

“Well, not pins like **_these_**. You’ll see when you start working the district. I actually like it. It’s fun scaring the players a little.” Hanekoma offered an uncharacteristic Cheshire grin that looked more appropriate on Joshua than himself. “If you want to see the world how the Players here see it, I can show you how to tune in.”

“Maybe later. Gabe’s going to teach me shapeshifting.”

“Oh, **_this_** I have to see.”

“Please don’t make it weird,” Neku protested, as a container of Jagarico popped in Hanekoma’s hands. He peeled back the paper, munching on the snack like he’d gotten front row seats to the theater.

“Too late, kiddo. Start with things that aren’t so far from what you’re used to. Hair length, hair ‘n eye color are good places to start.”

“Which one of us is teaching?” Gabriel asked good-naturedly. “Eh. Having a former human’s insight is useful anyway. Neku, sit down. It’s easier to do when you’re only focusing on shifting yourself.”

Neku sat, and Gabriel snapped her fingers a few times until a full-length mirror appeared in front of them. Hanekoma and Neku both smirked.

“Oh, shove it. I’m not in Chiyoda here,” Gabriel hissed. “This is **_your_** home turf, so no complaining. But Sanae’s right. Start with your hair. Try growing it down to your shoulders.”

Neku stared at his reflection in the mirror, scrunching his eyes in concentration, trying to order it to grow.

In the end, he just looked constipated.

“Boss, Boss, **_chill_** ,” Hanekoma said as he realized Neku wasn’t getting anywhere fast. “Don’t force it. Do you mind if I… touch your head?”

“Awkward,” Neku admitted, relaxing his scrunched-up face. “But whatever. Go ahead.”

Hanekoma placed a hand on the crown of Neku’s head, running his fingers down to the ends of his hair. “Close your eyes and just focus on this.”

Neku sighed. “All this is reminding me is that I need a haircut.”

“You won’t if you learn how to do this.”

Neku exhaled and focused on what he could only describe was a six-hundred-year-old eldritch horror petting his hair.

“You’re doing it,” Gabriel helpfully chopped in.

“I haven’t done any-” Neku started, before realizing that Hanekoma’s hand was reaching further down each time he moved.

Neku opened his eyes and swatted Hanekoma’s hand away. His hair was halfway down his back now, a cascade of ginger that made him look way too much like his mother. “Don’t waste your magic on me, Mr. H.”

“Trust me, I don’t have enough to spare, kid. That was all you.” A pair of scissors found themselves in Sanae’s hand, and with a quick yank and a snip, a fistful of hair was cut roughly off.

“Hey! My hair!” Neku whined. “It’s not even a straight cut.”

“Fix it yourself,” Hanekoma insisted, waving the ponytail’s worth of orange strands at him before standing up, tossing them in the trash, and going back to his pins. “I know you can.”

* * *

“Well, I did it, no thanks to you,” Neku grumbled at Hanekoma, the fallen angel feigning disinterest as he pressed pins.

“Congrats. You can now give yourself a haircut without scissors. Good work.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Neku grumbled.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” his own voice called back at him.

Neku looked up, Mr. H hadn’t moved from his chair, was still in his typical waistcoat and rolled up shirtsleeves, his shades halfway down his nose, but his face and body type had become a perfect match for Neku, and it wasn’t simple glamour.

“I could do this all night, kiddo,” Hanekoma grinned, still using Neku’s voice. “Right, Gabe?”

“Oh yeah, totally,” Gabriel added, having also shifted herself to match Neku (though still in her Mus Rattus hoodie and oversized cargo pants).

“Oh, come on,” Neku whined. “You’re just rubbing it in.”

“Course I am,” Hanekoma insisted, returning to normal. “If I, a plucked angel can do this, you can. I’ll congratulate you proper when you show me something impressive.” Hanekoma gave Neku a conspiratorial smile and put a mug of coffee up to his face, taking a deep sip, almost daring the kid to do something crazy.

Neku frowned, thinking of Mr. H’s smoke-addled voice, his stupid five o clock shadow, and his equally stupid bony face, pulling on the front of his hair as if to will it into the barista’s spiked widow’s peak.

Hanekoma spat out his drink in a fine mist.

“Holy fuck, is that what I’d look like as a **_ginger_**?” he choked out.

* * *

“I just put those pins in, and now I have to take them out,” Eri mock-complained, letting out the three centimeters in the shoulder she’d so carefully adjusted for. “I’ve heard of shedding water weight, but pick a body type and **_stick to it_** , Neku. You’re throwing off our alterations.”

“Sorry,” Neku admitted. “I’d lost all that mass because another angel accidentally sucked out a lot of my power. I’ll be more careful.”

“You’d better. Tell that Dracula to go suck someone else’s ass.”

Shiki scrunched up her face in disgust. “Ew. Eri. **_Phrasing_**. And don’t be so hard on Neku, he’s only been like this a few weeks.”

“Wasn’t the accident in February?” Eri asked, confused.

“The **_first_** one,” Neku grumbled.

“Uh… oh. Sorry,” Eri admitted. “Shiki had minor tele-what’s-it-called after the accident, so I figured that’s when you became an Angel. I know you two spent all summer running errands for them.”

“ ** _Telekinesis_** ,” Shiki clarified. “And it’s faded. I can’t even move Mr. Mew around anymore. Just stuff like pens and chalk. I… I’ll tell you the whole story some other time.”

“I’d like that,” Eri said with a nod. “It’s nice to be allowed to know your secret. Feels like I’m in some kind of movie. Hey, Neku, you’re free next Wednesday for the show, right? I don’t want to just put this on a mannequin.”

“ ** _Fuck_** ,” Neku hissed. “No, I’m not. Would you be okay with a sub?”

Eri sighed. “It’s fitted exactly to you. Unless you have an identical twin somewhere-”

“I **_could_** , if you’re okay with that.”

Eri inhaled, then frowned at Neku. “I… yeah. If they’re **_exactly_** your size. You’re going to have Josh fill in, aren’t you?”

“He owes me. Like, at least a lifetime’s worth owes me. Don’t worry, he’ll be me. I’ll make sure of that.”

Shiki rolled her eyes. “Oh, he’ll abuse the crap out of looking like you, though.”

“He’s not going to get me kicked out of school,” Neku said under his breath. “Thankful for **_that_** , at least.”

* * *

“What, hey!” Neku dodged a short-sleeve button down shirt thrown at his face. “What gives, Vanitas?”

“ ** _Chaos_** gives,” the gremlin replied with a smile. “Gabe had to handle a dispute in Chiyoda, Josh and Uri are working, so you’re left with me. I have Thursdays off.”

“No offense, Vanitas, but you’ve been dead far less long than I have. And your magic is super limited. I’ll come by tomorrow to train when someone’s free. I can just go to Mr. H’s. He can shapeshift just fine.”

“Yeah, but Gabe said I could oversee your training however I wanted. So, if that’s the case, I’m taking advantage of that. Come on. Also, you were dead less than three weeks more than I was. So, no complaints.”

Neku picked the fallen shirt up off the floor. “You’re asking me to fake being Josh? If we get in trouble, it’s your fault.”

“It’ll be worth it,” Vanitas grinned. “You in or not?”

Neku sighed. “I’ve only got my school shoes. He has an extra pair of slip ons I can steal?”

* * *

“So?” Neku asked.

“Man, that’s wrong. Stop doing the hip thing.”

“What, this hip thing?” Neku asked, leaning into his hip as he put a finger to his chin, seemingly lost in thought, familiar with the abomination’s mannerisms.

“Yes, **_that_** hip thing. You’re freaking me out.”

“This was your idea.”

“I didn’t think you’d be this good…”

“What? Neku?” Neku said, drawing out the sound in Joshua’s voice, enjoying the schadenfreude of watching Vanitas squirm. “He’s a quick study, isn’t he?”

“Stooooooop,” Vanitas whined.

“What, am I too good at mimicking your booooyfriend?” Neku asked.

Vanitas turned red.

“Oh, oh, shit. Vanitas, I am so, so sorry,” Neku backpedaled, using his own voice. “I didn’t know.”

“Wait… you’re not…?”

Neku shrugged. “Why would **_I_** care? Long as you’re both happy. Why?”

“Joshua warned me that two people who both look male in this world going out can cause… problems. I’ve noticed the stares. That sort of thing isn’t heard of where I’m from.”

“Fuck ‘em,” Neku said, offering a hand for Vanitas to stand up so they could go out and cause a little minor mayhem. “It does explain a lot though.”

“Yeah well, when you’re a thousand-year-old person in the body of a teenager, there’s not many options for dating that aren’t… awkward as anything.”

“See, I’m used to reminding myself that Josh is old as salt,” Neku admitted. “Keep forgetting you are, too. You come from the ‘time of fairy tales’, right? Like magic pumpkin carriages and poison apples and all that jazz?”

“Wicked witch or evil stepmother a week,” Vanitas snorted out. “Gets old really quick if you ask me.”

* * *

“Master Joshua, sir!”

Neku hadn’t even left the apartment’s street corner when a panicked Reaper ran to him. “Big! Blue! By the Scramble Crossing! It’s chasing Reapers, and the last set of Players are going to be released from stasis in seven minutes. Kariya and Uzuki are holding it off for now but-”

Vanitas cracked his knuckles. “On it. C’mon, **_Boss_**.”

“Wha- hey!” Neku cried out as Vanitas flapped twice and sped off towards 104 at an impressive clip. “Just because you can fight the Noise alone, doesn’t mean you **_should_** , you idiot!”

* * *

“I swear,” Neku muttered, as he flung himself inside the giant blue graffiti etched over the entire crossing. “Josh, somehow, **_someway_** , you knew this was happening and you orchestrated all this. Eff-you-see-kay you.”

* * *

“What the- **_Flood_**.” Neku nudged the diminutive beast with his foot. Vanitas partnering with his own Unversed still creeped Neku out a little.

“Hey **_ahem_** , Joshua,” Vanitas’s voice rang from the ether.

“Do you want to keep Flood on my half the Noise plane or take him back now that I’m here?” Neku asked him.

Flood vanished in a sweep of black shadow.

“Answers that question,” Neku sighed out. “Next, Joshua put you up to this, didn’t he?”

“’Course he did,” Vanitas howled back at him. “There’s been too much blue noise lately for me, him, and the higher up Reapers to handle. Two birds, one big stinking rock. Let’s see if you can stay shapeshifted while you’re focused on fighting.”

Neku rolled his shoulders. “Gee, thanks.”

“You told Gabriel about your stupid idea; if you don’t think everyone in our apartment knows about it by now, then you’re the idiot.”

“Why is it that every time Joshua is right, I want to smash his face in?” Neku asked through gritted teeth. “I’ll settle for this idiot instead. Hang tight, Vanitas, its about to get real hot in here.”

* * *

“You’re a hell of a fighter, Vanitas. I didn’t have to carry you at all.” Neku panted, bobbing over the Scramble Crossing in a dead man’s float on the air, hair singed by his own fire but quickly returned to a blonde luster with a thought.

“Centuries on you, remember?” Vanitas chided, flapping lazily next to him, flicking his Keyblade to and out of his hand. “The blue guys - ** _almost_** \- put up a fight. There’s a few others in the area if you want to keep it up.”

“So? Did I pass muster?”

“You have a cell, don’t you?” Vanitas asked wryly. “You tell me.”

Neku grumbled and fumbled for his cell, realizing he’d put it in a different pocket because he wasn’t wearing his own clothes.

“Still weird,” Neku admitted, staring back at the stolen face on the selfie camera. “Whatever, come on, I could use another fight.”

* * *

“Hey, Mom and Dad?” Neku said slowly, embarrassed to ask for permission on something he’d already set his mind to. “I… ah. I need to disappear for a few days.”

“Disappear?” His father asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“This Saturday night to next. I guess if you wore your goggles, you’d see me around town. I need to put myself on the UG for a week. I don’t have any tests, and I’ll get the notes from someone in class. **_Without_** mind reading.”

“And you can’t do this around school hours because?” Hiroko asked. It wasn’t accusatory, just leading for more information. Nor was the knee-jerk ‘no’ Neku had been expecting, so he took it as a win.

“I want to observe the Game here from the ground. The thing that doesn’t make sense is I’ve been downtown on the weekend and I haven’t seen any Players. So, either the timing just hasn’t worked, or they’re holding the games out in the rural areas. During the weekdays, at least, I know they do it when I’m at school. But Hanekoma sells to Players, so…” Neku paused. He knew he’d explained the intricacies of the Game to his parents, but it had also been a lot to take in. “The short answer is I’m going to live life- er, afterlife- as one of the regular dead for a week and see what it’s like here. I can’t run a district if I can’t understand how it works.”

“When you say ‘regular dead’, do you mean being a Reaper or playing the game, son?”

“I haven’t actually decided yet,” Neku admitted. “Both would be useful. But I am leaning towards playing myself. If I can text you during the week, I will. I’ll make sure to at least pass things on to Haniel.”

“Who?”

“Haniel outranks me but I’m technically her boss. She’s the messenger between here and… well, Heaven, I guess. Remember how I came home in a cop car at the end of August? That’s her. She hides her wings even from the Reapers, you wouldn’t see them with the goggles. You’d need something a lot stronger.”

Neku fidgeted with his chopsticks thinking over wether his next statement was a good idea. “I’ll give you her phone number. She knows you know what I am. She’s not that helpful, though, so don’t expect much. You can also try popping by Hanekoma’s during the day. I’ll make sure to stop there as a Reaper or a Player.”

“And you won’t come home after hours?” Hiroko asked.

“If I’m pretending to be a Reaper, I’ll stay in the dormitories. If I’m a player, I’d be in stasis between game days. Players don’t sleep.”

“Your mind is set, isn’t it, son?” Jiro asked. “I can’t stop you, anyway.”

“Your father’s right, we can’t. It sounds like you’ve thought this through, though.”

“It was one of the first things I wanted to do when I took Hachioji over. I need to understand this place to be here. Since you both know what I am now, I figured I’d at least be honest. I’m not… I’m not **_asking_** for permission, but I can’t say it wouldn’t be nice to have.” Neku swallowed, looking at his parents expectantly. His new dynamic with them was odd and still being felt out on both sides.

Hiroko dabbed at her eyes with a napkin. “I’ll get some practice for when you go off to college,” she eked out. “Have fun and stay safe.”

“Wait… what about the three weeks I was dead?” Neku asked. “Nobody at school thought I’d been missing, either.”

“Maybe the magic that brought you back overwrote you dying?” Jiro asked. “I think that’s a question for one of your Angel friends, not us.”

Neku relaxed. “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s eat.”

* * *

“Okay this is weird,” Neku muttered, knees to his chest as he stared at his reflection in the mirror. He flexed a now-metallic Reaper wing at the joint. It felt a bit like moving a rusty hinge. He pulled on it, not used to the lack of weight.

“I really should put my wings on the Angel plane unless I want to show off, **_ow_** ,” he said to himself as he rubbed his shoulder, careful to avoid the sharp points on his temporarily changed wings.

“You need to do those stretches Gabriel suggested,” Hiroko insisted from the doorway. “I can’t imagine those giant heavy things being comfortable on your back.”

“You should see what they look like right now,” Neku smirked, holding up his hands to his eyes to mimic wearing a pair of goggles. “Watch this.”

Neku rolled his neck and shook out his head, smirking as Hanekoma as he ran his fingers though now-cropped hair.

“Neat trick, right?” Neku asked in Hanekoma’s voice.

“H-what- ** _how_**?”

“Angels just **_can_** ,” Neku said, returning to his own familiar form. “Technically, **_this_** isn’t even me anymore,” he added, gesturing to himself. “That paint thing you mentioned Monday night was what I really am now. Josh is a big graffiti dragon. Gabe is a rat. If I’m going to hide right, I need to not look like me. Though I’ll have to do something about the smell.”

“Smell?” Hiroko asked. Neku shifted over, patting a space next to his futon, inviting her in. Awkwardly, she sat next to him.

“Mhmm. Reapers and angels have… well they call it **_smell_** but it’s more like this kind of aftertaste to their magic. It’s very **_very_** hard to hide if you know what you’re looking for. Josh’s smells like gunpowder and spray paint. Kind of caustic. Most of his Reapers smell like him mixed with their own magical imprint. Gabriel smells like baked goods. Hanekoma, unsurprisingly, smells like coffee.”

“And you?” Hiroko asked. She’d planned on going to bed soon, but she had nowhere to be on Friday other than cleaning the house. She could spare time, especially when her only child was willing to talk so openly. It was odd, letting her son lead the conversation, but she’d never really given him the space to do it before.

She hadn’t wanted kids in the first place, though she’d never admit it to Neku. She just felt it was something she **_had_** to do. Her own mother reminding her she was married and childless constantly hadn’t helped.

Maybe she was a little resentful. A **_lot_** resentful. She’d hoped that once she was pregnant that it was at least a girl, so she had someone to commiserate with, at least.

“Mom… uh. Don’t think so loud. I can hear you. And I’m not trying to.”

Her hands flurried to her mouth as if she’d spoken.

“I… ah, I always kinda knew you didn’t want kids,” Neku admitted aloud, poking at his mirror with a foot. “Didn’t take mind reading to know that. You were pretty loud on the phone with the neighbors. I’m not mad. Kids are hard. Didn’t know you’d rather have a daughter though.”

Hiroko sat, twisting her fingers as her mouth flapped like a fish’s. Neku sat quietly, observing her. It was strange seeing his mother like this, a human rather than an authority figure. It was going to take a while to unpack everything between them.

“N-neku.” Hiroko flailed with her hands, snot dripping from her nose. Neku flicked a finger, drawing a box of tissues to his lap.

“Clear our first.”

She blew, honking like a goose.

“I just.”

“ ** _Mom_**.” Neku insisted. “You already apologized, and you really are trying to do better. How many parents out there have to deal with their kid being a god?”

Hiroko laugh-snorted into her tissue. “I feel like the child being consoled, here.”

“I gotta practice on someone,” Neku joked. “Gabe’s right. Those Reapers are my kids now. I have to protect them. You know what I was doing after school today before coming home?”

“No, what?”

Neku leaned back, turning his wings back to his true ones so he could tent them and nest into them like a bean-bag chair. “I went to Josh’s because Gabe promised me shapeshifting practice. She was out, and Vanitas goaded me into pretending to be Josh. The minute I went outside, I was responsible for his Reapers. There was some Noise they couldn’t handle, and Joshua was already busy dealing with more. I helped. I probably saved lives. Er, afterlives, whatever. I need to be able to do for Hachioji what I did for Shibuya. It’s pretty obvious you still are trying to do your best for me, too.”

Hiroko pulled him in a tight hug. “You’re not too old for hugs, right?”

“Never,” Neku admitted. “Just… hang on, your arm is **_in_** my wing and that’s super awkward.” He rotated a little and pulled the appendage around. “If you have your goggles, I can share my gratitude.”

“I don’t need to touch your feathers to know that,” his mother said, pulling him tight and not letting go. “You want to tell me anything more, Neku? Show off a little?”

Neku grinned. “I’m getting the hang of mimicking people I know, but I can’t make someone just from my imagination. If I’m going to be a Player, I’ll have to be able to do that.”

Neku flipped through the photos on his phone.

“Can you copy him?” Hiroko asked, pointing to a tall, skinny redhead.

“Lea? Yeah, but I’m not going to match his height.” Neku closed his eyes and let himself be less… **_him_**. Now that he understood shapeshifting as less forcing himself to be someone else and more letting go of what he thought he was, it was easy. Less like chiseling marble and more like poking at soft clay.

No wonder Joshua was so bad at it. Neku smirked internally at forcing the teenage-seeming songbird down for fine arts classes. He wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. H had already tried.

“It’s like watching water ripple,” his mother said, bringing him back down to reality, staring at Lea’s face in tandem from his phone and the mirror in front of him. His mother had a hand hovering uneasily over his head.

“You just want to touch my hair,” Neku joked.

“It doesn’t seem real.”

“I mean, **_I’m_** not. Not anymore. I’m just energy and a memory.”

“Neku, **_please_** ,” his mother pleaded, pulling him into another hug.

“I mean, that’s what we all are,” he sighed out, snapping back to the face he was most familiar with. “Are we our bodies or just our thoughts?”

“Don’t get existential on me, **_mister_** ,” his mother chided.

Neku stuck out his tongue and turned himself into Gabriel.

“That’s not how you get out of this, Neku.”

“Who’s Neku- oh god that sounds weird,” Neku blanched at his own new voice before shifting back to himself but keeping his hair down his back. “That’s going to take some getting used to.”

Hiroko patted Neku’s head. “You look better with long hair, anyway.”

“My school doesn’t have a hair length requirement for the guys. Might be nice for a change. I’ll have to grow it slowly though.”

Hiroko looked away. “I was really only teasing a little. I don’t expect you to grow out your hair. You’ll be picked on for sure.”

“I was picked on my whole life for the color,” Neku protested, shaking his head until his normal cut resumed on top of it. I’m sure you remember the angry note from middle school chastising you and Dad for being bad parents and **_‘allowing someone my age to dye it’_**. I think it was the only time I was glad you’re as loud and obnoxious as you are. How did you settle that anyway? They wouldn’t have let me into school until it was black until you stepped in.”

“I read a lot of Fruits Basket,” Hiroko said with a small smile.

“I don’t get it.”

“I showed your school nurse my carpet matched the drapes,” she admitted, deadpan.

“Ew. Gross. **_Mom_**!”

“You asked. And it’s not like I haven’t seen you naked. I pushed you out of my-”

“This conversation has gone too far and is going to stop now.” Neku looked at his mother, both desperately trying to keep their faces serious and neutral before simultaneously breaking out into raucous laughter.

“I did not think I was going to be sharing dirty jokes with my mother tonight,” Neku sighed out once they’d both calmed down.

“And I didn’t think I’d be doing so with my kid, either, but here we are.”

Neku froze. “You said kid, not ‘boy’ or ‘son’.”

“Did I get it wrong?” Hiroko looked at Neku, confusion drawing lines on her forehead.

“What… do you mean?” Neku asked slowly.

“You could have just transformed into boys. You mixed Gabriel in there. And you said ‘going to take getting used to’, like you wanted to try again. Did I… I touch a nerve?”

“You did, but…” Neku sighed. “So. It’s been dawning on me more and more. I’m… basically this immortal being, right? The angels born as angels even more so. Joshua did all those terrible things because he stopped growing and changing and thought the world had too. He got… **_angry_**. Bored. I’m going to have a **_million_** lifetimes ahead of me. I can’t just find something that works and stick with it forever. I need to learn to grow, change, see things from other people’s perspective. Yeah, I could just go around reading everyone’s minds or like… make everyone think what I want them to. But that’s not good for anyone. I need to try everything out there. I can’t just sit still and let the world pass me by till I’m bored of it.”

“So, you want to try being a girl?”

“Maybe, I don’t know. You didn’t meet Uriel, but she changes genders all the time based on how she feels. What I really want to do is step out of my comfort zone. I **_am_** a god; I’m not really worried for life or limb. I want to protect my city, and I want to make sure I don’t end up like Joshua did. I… I saved him. I need to make sure I don’t end up so jaded some human will have to save me from myself, too.”

Hiroko laughed quietly and mussed Neku’s hair. “I said I’d support you. However unusual it might be. If you want to try out being a girl, you don’t need to give me a justification. Just try. Your father would say the same. I grew up around his college friends in the ‘90s. I’ve already seen it all and then some, we’re in Tokyo, even if it doesn’t feel like it. Now I can stay up and help you for another hour or so, but us mortals need sleep.”

“Mom?”

“Hm?”

“You’re not just sucking up to me because I’ll be watching over you when you die, right?”

Hiroko let out an uncharacteristic snort. “That’s your mother, playing the long game. Sucking up to the local gods I am, by buying coffee and teaching her child how to braid their hair.”

“You can say son,” Neku admitted, pulling his knees into his chest and looking at his reflection in the mirror. “And **_braids_**? Really?”

“If you want your hair long, you’re going to want to learn how to tie it back. Trust me. Nothing is worse than running and your hair getting in your mouth. **_Yuck_**.”

“Thanks, mom.”

“Now do you need me, or am I getting some sleep?”

“Go to bed, I’ll work on this on my own.”

“Whatever you choose, Neku, we’re here.”

Neku nodded and waited until he could hear his mother’s heartbeat and breathing slow. He turned to the mirror and closed his eyes, letting go.

When he opened them, or the idea of them, really, a small graffiti blue and orange graffiti-paint monkey with acid-white wings stared back at him.

“This is really what I am,” he sighed at the mirror, staring at it, then a corkboard of photos of his friends on the wall behind it. Shiki and he hanging out at Meiji Shrine. Him, Josh, Rhyme, and Vanitas in a stupid purikura photo making faces. Beat face planting at the bottom of the Udagawa stairwell.

And there was his real face in the mirror. He figured giving himself a new one- any new one- might help. But he wasn’t his parents’ son- nor a daughter- any more. He was a **_god_**.

He was a **_monster_**.

He couldn’t even breathe like this, he was little more than color and sharp edges, but his whole body seemed to sigh.

Thunder cracked once, twice, and Neku howled before jumping out the window to fly towards Hachioji Station in the pouring rain of his own creation.

* * *

“Neku, holy shit.”

The monkey loped on all fours in the middle of the café, dripping water from every sharp point.

“Talk to me, think at me. What is **_wrong_**?”

 ** _I don’t know_**.

Hanekoma gave a full body sigh. “Come on the roof, you idiot. If the thunderstorm is yours, we can at least get a front row view.”

* * *

“Parents know you’re out?”

**_Don’t have a curfew anymore._ **

Hanekoma turned his head slightly to observe Neku, pulled out a lighter and a cigarette, and took a deep long drag from it.

**_I’d say smoking is bad for you, but it isn’t._ **

“I’d say eating 10,000 calories worth of stuff from my shop all at once is bad for you, but different vice, same day, Boss.” Hanekoma leaned back in his plastic folding chair, completely dry, without an umbrella in sight. He puffed out a circle or smoke into the torrential sheet of rain, smiling a little at the next fork of lighting. “Haven’t seen a show like this in a while. Gotta be big, kiddo.”

**_That’s the problem. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Mom and Dad are wildly supportive, you’re chill, Haniel isn’t… well she’s not bad. Josh and Gabe and Uri and Vanitas and the rest of them have been so good too._ **

“Your problem is you think you’re gonna fuck something up and ruin this perfect moment.”

 ** _Yeah_**. **_I don’t know what, but I feel like I’m going to screw up. Badly._**

“So? You’re an angel. I don’t mean that in the kindness way. I mean you can literally change things at will. If you kill someone on accident, it’s literally not even spilled milk. It’s like… I don’t know. Like ordering the wrong size coffee and getting refunded the difference. If anyone can fuck up and fix up, it’s us.”

“Have you tried… changing your face?”

Hanekoma spared a glance when he heard Neku’s voice aloud. The kid had returned to his usual form, completely soaked to the bone. “Changing my…? Not recently, not unless I need to for some reason. No real need. I like this one.”

* * *

“Let’s get you inside and warmed up if you aren’t going to keep the rain off; you might not catch a cold but you’re new. You’ll **_think_** you can, and you’ll still get symptoms. In, then.” Hanekoma dropped his cigarette, which went out the minute it left his hand, leaving a wet stain on the roof. He grabbed his chair in one hand and Neku’s shoulder in the other.

“If you want to give me the overview, I can read your mind, kiddo. Only if you want.”

“Yeah, I can’t really get my thoughts in order.”

* * *

“Just so you know, I really enjoy preening, this isn’t exactly a hard ask.” Neku nursed a thermos of coffee, his hair turbaned in a fluffy pink towel as Hanekoma combed his feathers out. “And if I’m honest, it’s a quick way to diagnose that there’s something wrong.”

“Emotions, I know,” Neku admitted. “You can feel then through my Soul.”

“Uh-huh. I knew Josh was hitting max emo long before he’d ever admit it. He’s older than me, sure, on paper, but it’s not like angels ever grew up, y’know. Sometimes it takes a mother to knock some sense into her child, even if that mother is younger and the child is a nigh eternal eldritch horror.”

“ ** _Mother_**?”

“Neku, I’m from the Warring States era. Daughter of a merchant. Didn’t exactly have any job prospects besides marry and pop out kids. Used a pen name for my art, cut my hair, dressed as a guy while I was alive. You don’t think I jumped at the chance to be a guy when it presented itself? I said I haven’t changed it recently. Not that I **_never_** did. Not gonna lie, I dig the stubble. I’m comfortable with this face, now. I definitely couldn’t pull off the smoking, semi-formal, shade-wearing coffee shop owner in my original form.”

“If you tried, you could.”

Hanekoma barked out a laugh. “I sure could. But you gotta pick your fights, kid. Some things are worth fighting over, and some things are better being comfortable. Until women stop gettin’ groped on the subway, I’m good like this, thanks. Hell, probably after, too. I prefer this.”

“You can’t even ride the train. You’re stuck here.”

“Point stands, though, don’t it? There’s plenty of ways for me to listen to customers, help people, grow, and learn for myself. But if I want to have a smoke, I’m going to sit on the roof and do it. Balance. Who I was a couple hundred years ago ain’t who I am now, except for the bits I want to be. I wouldn’t mind looking like my old self again, but it’s also been so long I’m not sure I remember what it was. And I don’t mind that. Anyway, enough with the existentialism- right’s lookin’ good, you wanna swap places so I grab your left?”

“Wha, yeah. Sure. Thanks Mr. H.”

“Anytime, kiddo. I like taking in the strays. I was one myself.”

“How did you die?”

“Drunk husband. Ain’t going through the details, you can prolly fill it in with that big brain of yours. ‘S why I won’t touch the stuff myself. I used to have a udon joint before coffee was a thing in Japan. Coffee’s just a different kinda broth when it comes down to it.”

“You’re not wrong,” Neku admitted, recalling Hanekoma’s bean comments from his time in Shibuya’s game. It felt a lifetime away, and basically was one. “Explains all the soups on the menu. Thought it was a bit odd for a coffee place.”

“Don’t get me started. I love experimenting with weird ingredients.” Hanekoma grinned. “Usually serve up the newest ideas to the Players. On the house, because it’s usually kinda wild. If the bowl’s emptied, I start puttin’ it in the menu for real.”

“That espresso soup sounded nasty,” Neku blanched.

“Most people put espresso in curry it’s not **_that_** odd. I’ll fix you up a bowl. If you don’t like it, more for me. So? You feelin’ better, kid?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“You wanna practice anything, you just ask. This district already knows what it’s doing, I don’t have to do much to keep it runnin’. I get to participate on the ground instead. It’s nice.”

“Looking forward to it,” Neku admitted.

“So? Chow and kick you out or are you staying a bit? It’s only midnight.”

“I could use your opinion on something, if you’ll hear me out.”

“Course I will. Let’s go grab some grub, though? You’re not the only one who eats like a hog.”

* * *

“Just be yourself, kiddo. You’ve got this. They hold these one Friday a month, they’re nothing special.”

Neku nodded from the passenger seat, constantly checking his phone’s clock in a bid to soothe his nerves. “Yeah. And thanks for the ride. Where’d you learn to drive, anyway?”

“Stole it off Haniel. Never needed a car when I worked Shinjuku, and they didn’t exist when I was Composer down in Kansai a lifetime ago. Still horses back then.”

“Stole? A **_car_**?”

“The **_knowledge_** , Neku. She just infodumped at me. **_Josh_** got me the car. ‘I’m sorry’ money.” Hanekoma grinned as he pulled into a parking lot near a construction site. “Gotta walk the rest or fly it. Your choice.”

“How far?”

“Kilometer.”

“Walking’s fine.”

Neku watched overhead as a small flock of Reapers passed lazily in the early twilight. A motorcycle ripped into the parking space next to Hanekoma’s compact, the rider sliding off with grace to quickly jog and meet up with Neku and Sanae.

“Crystal! How was it today?”

“Scared ‘em shitless, it was great,” she beamed. “Ugh, feels good to be in pants though.”

“Please tell me there’s context,” Neku hissed.

“You’re our new little god! Aw! Aren’t you adorable!” Crystal beamed. “This your first time down from Heaven or didja come from another district?”

“I came from Shibuya,” Neku said dryly, eyeing the young-appearing woman carefully.

“Ooooh, a **_city_** boy. City person? Shoulda asked. I know angels don’t have a gender so…”

“Sounds like your last Composer was pretty open about this?” Neku asked.

“Zeke was a right bastard, but we all loved him. Clyde could fuck off, though.” Her face fell. “Am I being to informal? I’m too informal. You prefer honorifics, Master Angel Sir?”

“Ugh, no, I’m just… **_who are you_** , exactly?”

“Oh, sorry. Crystal’s fine. I’m the GM.”

“She answers straight to me,” Hanekoma said with a small nod.

“Could have opened with that and saved me some trouble,” Neku muttered. “Neku. Composer. But you already knew that bit. No honorifics needed.”

Neku watched her visibly relax as she tucked her helmet under an arm, wings folding halfway. “Phew. Sorry. I haven’t met too many of your peeps. Didn’t want to cause trouble.”

“Sounds like you already cause a ton,” Neku said with a grin. “GM and all.”

“Oh yeah, I raise hell,” she grinned. “Time of my afterlife, let me tell you.”

* * *

“A torii. Really.”

Neku sighed, looking around the side of the Shinto shrine gate to more woods, then looked through the gate of the torii then looked to the other side. “There’s a pocket dimension inside the gate. Seems a bit cliché.”

“We **_are_** the Horrors of Hachioji,” Crystal shrugged. “It’s kinda our thing. What’s Shibuya’s like?”

Neku smirked. “It’s the sewer.”

“Ew. Gross.”

“I mean, if you go into the un-space it’s actually pretty nice. The Conductor’s chambers are a bar. Big enough for team meetings like this. Holy… wow.”

Neku stepped forward through the torii gate and looked around at the un-space for Hachioji. It felt like something out of a Ghibli film, with small wooden workshops housing different crafts and art supplies, a stone ramp up to a shrine overlooking the whole Tangi area. Neku smelled food, his stomach rumbling.

“Let’s stop at mess before we go up to the stage,” Hanekoma said, nudging Neku away from an open-air tatami lined fine art room. “You can drool later.”

* * *

Neku tore into his grilled chicken and pineapple skewer from the Reaper’s commissary, designed like an outdoor food market running down one of the side streets of the little invisible village. On the stage in front of the shrine, Crystal went over the past months’ statistics about Player elimination, promotions, and general issues among the Reapers (including several dormitory reassignments). Neku still learned nothing about the Game itself, but the repeated mentions of scaring players stood out. Hachioji sounded like some sort of test of mental fortitude. Surprisingly, the elimination counts weren’t much different from Shibuya’s. Neku could comfortably say the Reapers here weren’t directly attacking players.

His eyes drifted around the group. About half were in traditional garb, kimono, hakama, leggings with ragged and torn festival coats. Neku guessed that was Reaper uniform; the old school aesthetic matched up well with the un-space in the same way Shibuya’s hoodies and brutalist underground seemed made for each other.

Neku frowned. The last time he wore a kimono was for Shichi-Go-San probably, and he was five.

“Do **_you_** wear a kimono on the clock?” Neku hissed at Hanekoma.

“Nah, but I’m the odd one out. I get a pass because my shop serves coffee and also caters to living people. The rest of the shops run by Reapers are things like talismans and charms, so the owners being in traditional clothing isn’t so weird to any mortals walking in, or the shop’s totally in the UG and the living don’t see it.”

Neku nodded.

“See Haniel?” Hanekoma whispered at him.

Neku focused his eyes past the UG and into the Angel’s Plane; Haniel floated serenely just over the heads of two older looking Reapers dressed like samurai, swords sticking through their armor covered in what Neku **_hoped_** was fake blood. The reapers didn’t seem too nonplussed about being skewered.

“Yup.”

“…so, last month, after Zeke moved on, and He-Who-We-Won’t-Bother-Naming got deep fried, we got a new Conductor. This month, looks like another Shibuya native’s come west from the city proper. Composer, if you would?”

Neku made an awkward wiggle-bow with his head and wings before striding up to the stage, careful to step over the ring of salt lad out neatly around the edge of the wood. He wasn’t superstitious, but there was no way he was going to push his luck.

“H-hey,” Neku said, awkwardly, facing what was likely nine-tenths the Reapers in the district. Neku roughly estimated about eight hundred to a thousand.

No big deal. Not at all.

“Deep breaths!” someone shouted at him from the front. A good chunk of the Reapers laughed at that.

“Gallows humor. Nice, think I’ll like you guys,” Neku said with a smile, trying not to sweep the salt away with his trailing flight feathers as he paced. The tension was broken, though, and Neku continued.

“I’m Neku, and I wasn’t sure what to expect, honestly. I didn’t know what you Reapers did and didn’t know about how all this really works. In Shibuya, for a long time, most Reapers didn’t even know Angels existed. Their Conductor was a Reaper, not an angel like Mr. H, and their Composer never showed his face. The number of Reapers who knew **_who_** he was and **_what_** could have been counted on one hand with fingers to spare.

“I was in a game run by that Conductor.”

A few gasps escaped the audience. “Yes, those rumors are true. Reapers **_can_** ascend to Angel. It’s not easy. Mr. H was human once, too. Your last Composer was not. Having two former humans as your highest-ranking officials has some advantages, and other disadvantages. I’ll be honest. I know about the workings of Heaven above us, but only a little. I’ve never even been there.”

“You’re not missing much,” Hanekoma hollered from the back of the stadium.

“Thank you, peanut gallery,” Neku muttered deadpan to a smattering of laughs. “Anyway. My knowledge of the Game and the UG only extends to the one **_I’m_** familiar with. I don’t know enough about Hachioji. My job as a Composer is to be the core of the city itself. **_My_** magic flows through it. I can inspire the mortals. That thunderstorm last night? I was having a hissy fit. Sorry about anyone doing their laundry.”

“Hey, warm us if you’re going to watch Grave of the Fireflies, will you?”

Neku grinned. He liked these guys already. “I’ve seen it once and that’s enough, please and thanks. Anyway. There’s a small number of you who know my little secret, and I’ll share it with all of you. I’m actually in high school. I’d bet money I lower the average age of this group by a full confidence interval. And er, sorry. I just started calc, okay?”

The audience went silent.

“So, uh. My job really isn’t the Game directly. I’m actually in school during the day; I only died this year. I’m sixteen. I’m not going to pretend I’m some kind of old god, because I’m not. I’m learning the ropes, too. Mr. H and angels from other districts are giving me guidance but… well. I’m probably going to be a bit more volatile than what you’re used to.

“And while my job isn’t the game directly, other than personally granting reincarnation or Reaper wings, I **_do_** want to understand how the one here works. With that in mind, I’ll be participating next week myself. I’ll be pulling aside a Reaper later tonight and taking their place for the week.”

“You mean you’ll be doing a Reaper’s job?” a voice hollered from the back.

“That’s right. My pick will have the entire week off. As an angel, I can grant special permissions. So those of you with a nose for magic can’t sniff out the fake, they’ll get a one-week vacation in Shibuya or Chiyoda. On me. Angels can shapeshift; I’ll be taking their place. Everyone else will receive one token with their name or preferred handle written on it. At any point in the week, if you think someone is actually me, give that person your token. At the end of the week, I’ll show off whose tokens I have. I haven’t determined the prize yet, but I’ll come up with something appropriate, and the earlier in the week I get a token, the better the prize.

“Whoever I’m going to mimic is going to have to give me permission to read their mind so I can do the job correctly. If they don’t want to do so, they may pass with no penalty and I’ll pick someone else. I’m not going to **_make_** anyone do this. I will be starting on Sunday with the start of the new game, and I’ll have an all hands the following Sunday evening after **_that_** new game’s events have concluded. Are there any questions?”

“You gonna stay in the dorms?” a male sounding voice asked from the back.

“If that person stays in the dorms, I will be as well. I will be taking their life for a full week.”

“What if they’re dating someone?” a little Reaper who looked no older than six but was probably several times Neku’s age asked.

“I’d probably prevent their significant other from guessing. I’m not kissing someone else’s boyfriend or girlfriend, thank you.”

Neku got some laughs from that.

“So, it could be anyone?”

“ ** _Anyone_**. From the newest entrant all the way up to the Conductor or Crystal. **_Anyone_**.”

Neku drove his point home by rolling his shoulders and turning into Hanekoma on the spot. “ ** _Anyone_** , got it, kiddo?”

Someone in the front row let out a low whistle. “Damn.”

Neku snapped back to himself. “Anyone else?”

“Just wanted to say you’ve got balls,” one of the bloody samurai commented. “Or the Angel equivalent of it.”

Neku shrugged. “And you all do too. Metaphorically. I think I like you lot already. Now, I’ll be off by the food stands, stuffing my face. If you want to come talk to me one on one, I’ll stay the rest of the night.”

“Hey, punk, I’m driving you home,” Hanekoma hollered.

“Fuck you, I don’t have a curfew,” Neku hollered back with a sharp grin. “Oh, and my parents are alive. If anyone lays a finger on them, they’re losing a hand. We clear?”

* * *

Neku spent the next few hours mingling. A few months ago, he’d just be cranking up the volume on his headphones a notch for every time someone wanted to bother him, but now, he seemed at ease. Most just wanted pleasantries. A few asked to spar; Neku coming up with increasingly ludicrous ways to keep his immense power in check to the delight of a growing crowd. One small reaper who was only ten just wanted to touch his feathers. About fifteen (mostly ranked) Reapers tried to not so discreetly sniff Neku’s magic for the guessing game of the following week.

Neku, thankfully, didn’t have a smell of his own yet, though that in and of itself would be a giveaway.

“Give it a year, when your specialties emerge,” Hanekoma said, patting him on the shoulder. “All freshmeat like you either smell like the angel they’re closest to, or like nothing at all.”

As the night wore on and Reapers trickled homebound, Crystal bounded up to Neku and Hanekoma. “Jizo was right. You’ve got balls of steel, kid. You going to tell me who you’re impersonating?”

“There’s only three people who are going to know. Myself, and two others. Neither of which are you two. So, you both know now, I’m not going to take over as Conductor or GM. I’m going lower than that.”

“Oooh, so someone with a S.O. then,” Crystal said with a grin. “That was a hint, wasn’t it?”

“Three people, not you two,” Neku repeated. “I can swear that on angel blood if you need an oath. I bleed ambrosia.”

“One, **_ew_**. Gross. Two, is that **_really_** where ambrosia comes from?”

“ ** _Yup_** ,” Neku and Hanekoma said in unison. “Angel blood is an intoxicant for Reapers.”

“Ew, ew, **_ew_**.”

“You asked,” Neku shrugged.

* * *

Hanekoma waited until Crystal peeled out of the lot before starting the engine and turning to Neku. “Lemme guess. You, Haniel, and the person you’re mimicking.”

Neku shrugged. “Maaaaybe.”

“That’s a yes.”

Neku sighed. “Basically. I’m going to be talking with Haniel and the person tomorrow. I’ll take their place at the end of the night.”

Hanekoma nodded. “Where’s my token?”

“I put them in everyone’s pockets already. Including the Reapers on night watch who got the meeting streamed to them.”

Hanekoma patted himself down at the next red light, pulling out a hexed-up poker chip with CAT scrawled on one side. “Ooooh, that’s good. Nice work, kiddo.”

“Got the idea from your skull pin tracker. Does the same job but tracked Soul signatures instead. The chips name themselves. You see a blank side first, so you expect to see your name or handle on the other side. And then it’s there.”

“ ** _Slick_**. Sure you’re not going to give me a hint?”

“No way. You already have more info than anyone else.”

* * *

“Your speech today was quite the surprise. Am I to assist with the swap over, then? Have you chosen a candidate?”

“Not… exactly,” Neku answered. “I’ve chosen what class I want to swap with, but I want to see them all first.”

“Barrier maidens and monks? Yokai? Shopkeepers?” Haniel rattled off.

“ ** _Players_**.”

* * *

Neku woke up Saturday to a text from Haniel with an address and a time. After having breakfast, and nodding at the dishes until they found themselves clean, dry, and back in the cupboard to his parents’ delight, he rolled his neck, stretched out his wings, and took off like a jet for the address near the station.

Haniel’s apartment was probably the saddest thing Neku had ever seen. It contained one kitchenette, one low table, one cushion, one futon, a dorr likely leading to a bathroom and…

Well if there was anything else it was packed up in the single small sliding-door closet at the far wall.

“No art?”

“I prefer **_order_** in my home, Neku. I am usually only here to sleep.”

“I’d love to see your work sometime.”

“That’s irrelevant to your request.”

“Not everything needs to be **_relevant_** ,” Neku sighed out, as he kicked off his shoes and stepped onto the tatami to sit at the table Haniel had organized with talismans.

“One of the Producer’s duties is to gather up any Soul that’s remained intact upon death, catalog it, and release it into the Game. This is not a duty you will need to learn. I may teach it yet, if only to have a backup on hand.”

All business and no pleasure, Neku thought to himself.

“I **_am_** here for business,” Haniel reminded him aloud. “I do not talk **_pleasure_** with my boss.”

“Phrasing,” Neku chided.

“I know what I said.” Haniel sighed a little, the first creep of emotion he’d seen on her stone-cold face.

“You got too close with a former Composer and regret it,” Neku bit back. “Surprise, us humans die. A **_lot_**. We don’t freeze up when something bad happens to the people we love.”

“I’ll get over it, as you humans say, in time.”

“Then I won’t pry further,” Neku huffed. “Just… if this is some sort of façade, you don’t need to hide from me. And I promise, I have absolutely zero romantic interest in you. I’m not a fan of older women.”

Haniel cracked the barest of smiles. “You’re as brash as the Reapers.”

“I really like this group, honestly.”

“They are good children, if a bit loud,” Haniel admitted. “Now then, you’ve sufficiently side-tracked me. Shall we?”

“Now we can, yeah,” Neku said, breaking into a small smile. “Thanks for letting me in.”

“You let yourself in.”

“I didn’t mean the door,” Neku said, waving a hand back to the entryway.

“I did not, either.”

* * *

Neku hovered a hand over the array of protective charms laid out in orderly rows on the table. Five rows of twelve. Sixty souls exactly.

“These are all people,” Neku said bewildered. He’d seen Rhyme’s pin before, and the pile of them dwindling by the week of Uriel’s backlog of souls for Shinjuku, but it was something to see them laid so oddly reverentially in front of him. It was almost like a graveyard of markers.

“The twenty on the left-hand side are leftovers from last week. Do not take one of those,” Uriel admonished.

“Huh? That many players have to play again? How many get reincarnated each week?”

“All survivors can choose Reaper or reincarnation. Those souls haven’t played yet.”

“I’m not getting it.”

“Only sixty souls may play at a time. If there’s less, we hold them back until there’s enough and we skip a week. If there’s more, we hold some for the following game. If there’s more than a hundred, we jump to 120 and play a double sized game, and so on. So, some weeks can be extremely taxing, and others, there’s no game at all.”

Neku nodded. “I’m used to them holding back one person at most. Joshua will run a game so long as he can make pairs. Why sixty?”

“If you’re going to play as a Player, I will provide you no unfair advantage,” Haniel said, before breaking out in a grin. “I’d have taken those memories from you anyway. If you want to judge it as a Player, you’re going to do it **_correctly_** , you idiot child.”

Neku snorted. “Fair’s fair. So… I’m dooming someone to wait one more week for judgement, then.”

“There are already fifteen others in that queue.”

Neku closed his eyes, and ran his hand over the tableau, picking up a talisman at random. It was strangely warm in his hand, and the person’s entire life flashed before his eyes. A twelve-year-old girl, hit by a drunk driver on the curved byway by Soka University. She was coming home late from violin practice.

Neku almost dropped the wooden placard in shock.

“You’re holding an entire soul in your hand, pick it up by the string if you are not used to that,” Haniel cautioned.

“Guess I’ll take her, then,” Neku said, dangling the charm off his pointer finger by its ribbon. Neku didn’t need to do much to shift himself; he’d practically lived twelve years of her existence in a moment. He spied his reflection in the refrigerator, his own clothes oversized and a little silly.

“You look absolutely ridiculous with those massive wings.”

“I do as myself, too,” Neku admitted, shuffling them with a wind-chime rustle until they tucked away on the angel’s plane. He could feel the ghosting of them there, but the weight on his back disappeared. “Gah, they weigh a ton, I’m not going to miss that for a week.”

“They are only as strong as your Soul is. Gabriel referred you here and I trust her judgement on these things.”

“She… really yelled you down the other night, didn’t she?” Neku asked, passing the charm to Haniel, who waved it away in a shower of golden sparks. “Called you a birdbrain, too, if I understood it correctly.”

“I am aligned with the Rooster, yes,” Haniel replied, thrumming her nails on the table. “She used to be my Producer, if that would surprise you. I respect her opinion greatly, even if she is a tad noisy about it.”

“She… took a demotion?”

“She took my slot when I moved up and out. And seems to prefer it.”

“She said she was the weakest amongst herself, Uriel, and Joshua.”

“Strength of one’s magical ability is not the sole judge of ones… well, soul. She’s quite the firebrand. As you are. Are you a Rat as well?”

“Monkey.”

Haniel looked a little taken aback. “Unexpected. Not wholly unsurprising. If you said you were Horse or Cat, then I would be shocked.”

Neku looked back to the sets of talismans left on the table, which Haniel quickly swept away. “ ** _Sixty_**. Oh. There’s sixty animals in the full Zodiac, five elements with one of the twelve animals in each. We’re going to be restricted in what magic we can use by what we are, aren’t we?”

“Hmph. I stand corrected. You should have been a **_Snake_** ,” Haniel muttered. “Now, let me forge your death paperwork for your case handler. You’re free to change back for now. I’ll come pick you up just before midnight.”

Neku stood up, gaining a good twenty centimeters in height as he did so. “Her name was Kawakami Sakura.”

“I am aware,” Haniel said, shooing him to the door. “Go. You do not need to sit and watch me write up documentation, unless you have nothing better to do.”

“Do you… want lunch?”

“What did I say earlier about pleasantries?”

“It’s just food, I know we have to eat,” Neku said with a shrug. “Look. We need to at least understand each other enough to work together. You can either be an obstacle, or you can help. Josh said you wanted the Composer side off your plate, but I have to work with you to take it.”

“Give me a moment to gather my things.”

Neku smiled. “No prob. I don’t eat downtown much besides Mr. H’s. You have a suggestion?”

“Curry udon.”

“Cool. I could go for some. I’ll pay.”

“Pay for yourself. This isn’t a date. I’m fully capable of covering my own meal.”

Neku hissed out a sigh. He was pretty sure thawing the ice caps was easier than thawing his Producer.

* * *

“Hey, Josh?” Neku sat on the roof of Hachioji Station looking down the promenade. A few decent sized Noise floated over the main road below; he’d ask Hanekoma if he wouldn’t mind a workout clearing a few of the bigger ones.

“You’ve got ten minutes, Neku,” Joshua sighed out, tinnily, over the cell signal. “Rhyme and I have a strategy meeting with the GM and captains in a few.”

“Can you make a cloak of glamour to sit in my classes for me next week?”

“No. ‘S not how it works. Glamour is… its like those big mascot costumes you see people wear to promote some shop. They can stand up on their own without a person in them, but they’re not going to move around or anything. You gotta have someone put on the costume.”

“Wouldn’t ask that of you.”

“Yeeeeah, not that I’m ever against making a fool of you in public- I’m still covering you Wednesday, I promise- but I don’t have forty hours to spare. Not till Shinjuku’s fixed. I **_do_** know a delinquent I can shove in a you-suit though. Give Vanitas a ring. If he says okay, he can cover you, I’ll get him out of shopkeeper duty.”

“You mean I’ll cover him.”

“Only if you want to, I don’t judge.”

“Aren’t you two… uh? Vanitas said you were dating.”

“So? I’m not going to pass on any threes-”

“Whatever you’re going to say, you can stop right there.”

“It’s no fun if I can’t see your face while you squirm, anyway. Just… don’t be an idiot, Neku. Remember what Kitaniji took from you. You can’t play another Reaper’s game.”

“No, I can’t get my **_life_** **_back_** from a Reaper’s game.”

“Then something’s still going to be taken from you. You prepared to lose it for good if you fuck up?”

“I’m… not even sure what I value most now. I don’t think it’s my Angel-ness.”

“I’ve got a stab of an idea. Just giving you a fair warning, you might lose any memories of your parents. Best thing for you right now is you and them finally having those sit-downs. Your relationship with Hanekoma might be up for grabs, too, bee-tee-dubs. Could forget who he is too. I doubt its going to be your powers, especially if you’ve so readily offered them off to your Producer. Don’t give me that face, I **_know_** you’re giving a face. Gabe’s a gossip and a half.”

“She and Haniel seem close.”

“Yeah, that’s how I got you placed. Hanekoma, too. Shame about the news getting out that Clyde was sexually harassing some of the female Reapers. Double shame Ezekiel blew him sky-high for it, leaving a massive power vacuum behind. Coincidences are a funny little thing, aren’t they?”

Neku facepalmed. “ ** _You_** seeded that.”

“’Course I did. I draw the line **_somewhere_** , and that’s a huge no from me. Couldn’t just murder someone else’s Conductor, though. And I got you a post. What you do with it is on **_you_**. Can’t baby you **_forever_**. Now go give that idiot a ring. And remind him I have dinner reservations for us tonight. He’s late and he’s stuck with insta-ramen.”

* * *

“Are you ready, Neku?” Hiroko asked at dinner. “Do you… need anything packed?”

“No, I’m fine, Mom, really.”

“So? Who am I looking for?” she asked, passing the communal plate of braised pork across the table.

“Er, well…” Neku poked at his rice. “Twelve-year-old girl. Died in a car accident. I’m taking her place in the game. You won’t see me without the goggles at all. You have Haniel’s number, right? Mr. H just knows that I’ll be on the ground in some way. Not who.”

“Just… be careful, Neku,” Jiro sighed out.

“I will be, promise. If it’s bad, I can tap myself out. But the Reapers here seem fair. I’m not that worried.”

* * *

The doorbell rung at 11:30 on the nose.

“Son, that’s for you,” Jiro said with a nod.

“Yeah.”

“You want us to stay with you? We can get the goggles.”

“Depending on how Haniel takes my soul away, you might not want to see that part,” Neku admitted. “I think you shouldn’t watch.”

The Sakurabas embraced in a quick, deep group hug as the bell rung a second time.

“Haniel is extremely regimented,” Neku sighed over the bell. “I should go.”

Hiroko mussed Neku’s hair one more time. “ ** _Now_** you can go.”


	3. The Long Sleep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You'll notice the chapter count has been upped to 7. I split chapter 3 and 4 each into halves, so two extra chapters.
> 
> Trigger warnings: abelism and an abelist slur (said by someone who clearly needs a good hard look in the mirror).
> 
> Please remember that while I myself am legally blind and have also needed to use a wheelchair in certain instances, I was born with my disability, and the experience of someone losing their eyesight as an adult is quite different from someone who never had it. Also, people who use wheelchairs for self mobility rather than other reasons (hospitals, for example), have experiences I don't have. I tried to write these characters to the best of my ability after quite a bit of research, but if I didn't do them justice, please let me know.
> 
> I do love hearing from you all. I know this fic is quite different in style and tone from infinity, but it is more interconnected than you might think at first. There's a few more characters I didn't tag for spoiler reasons. :D It's really tough balancing significant character growth with not making someone sound too OOC (looking at you, Vanitas, especially)
> 
> There's quite a lot of specialized Japanese terminology, so if people want/need a glossary, I can add one.
> 
> Oh! Also. I used to live in Hachioji. The travel times/places/districts are all real. I lived just on the border of Kasumimachi and Tangi, right by the Shinto shrine/park/and perpetual construction near the Tangicho post office. I miss it. A lot.

Neku ate dirt.

He blinked his eyes open and sat up, readjusting his opinion.

Neku ate **_tatami_**.

His mind swam as he pulled himself as upright as he could.

Sakura was a sixth grader, and didn’t have a school uniform, but he did put her strewn yellow bucket hat on his head and pulled her red randoseru to his chest. The leather strap clinked against a button on his fire engine red overalls. Girl liked red, it seemed. At least it wasn’t something ugly like magenta or lime green.

Neku wasn’t sure how he could feel nostalgic for an elementary school backpack, considering sixth grade was only four years ago for himself, but holding it felt **_comfortable_**.

He tried to shift fully upright, frowning as he couldn’t. **_Great_**. Haniel **_had_** run him over Saturday night just to give him the shock to his system he needed, and his legs wouldn’t cooperate.

Hopefully his soul would catch up soon enough. His legs were solidly numb.

“Sakura-chan?”

Neku looked up. He was grateful for her name. Being a Sakuraba meant that he instinctively whiplashed at hearing a similar one.

“W-where am I?” Neku asked nervously. A screen slid away, revealing a human-sized hawk with an eyepatch in a trailing three-layer kimono, carrying a wad of parchment. Neku assumed woman, but the bird features threw him for a loop.

The bird stared at him with a beady eye. “Always forget how small preteens can be. Come, now, to my desk. I don’t bite.”

Neku tried to pull himself upright again, exhausting himself quickly. “Can’t.”

“Hm?”

“My legs aren’t working.”

The hawk flipped through paperwork. Neku caught a glimpse of the outline of Reaper wings pressed up between the layers of her kimono. “Nothing here says you were handicapped before… must be a psychosomatic reaction to the crash…”

He didn’t remember any animal-looking Reapers. He didn’t even consider that was even possible. Angels could become animals, sure, and any significantly high-ranking Reaper or Angel could have an animal-like Noise form. But those hurt to look at with mortal eyes, all swirling paint and tricks of the light. **_This_** was a meter and a half tall hawk.

In kimono.

Maybe it was glamour? Neku didn’t know and he wasn’t going to look at the world on the Angel plane to see through it. It just seemed an odd choice to do.

It wasn’t worth losing sleep over.

Neku let go of the backpack and started pulling himself on the tatami over to the Reaper in charge of his intake.

“No, no, child, wait,” the hawk insisted, snapping the packet of papers shut as it looked down at Neku scrambling towards the low table. “I’ll get you a wheelchair. You’ll need one, anyway.”

Neku cocked his head, curious. The hawk shuffled out of the room, leaving the paperwork on the table. Quickly, he pulled himself over the rest of the way, peering at it, staring down at Sakura’s death information. Nothing he didn’t already know.

Bracing himself against the desk, he maneuvered his useless legs until he was sitting.

“Sakura-chan, **_please_** ,” the hawk insisted, pulling in a strange contraption with her. It didn’t look like any wheelchair Neku was used to- it looked like wheels with a seat. No handles on the back.

“I’ll lift you on, okay?”

“Won’t that ruin the tatami?” Neku blurted out.

“Tatami can be replaced. Now, hold still, child.”

The hawk knelt, placed a hand on Neku’s back and another under his knees, and lifted, depositing him in the chair, clicking a seatbelt at his waist and restraints around his ankles. Neku was positive he felt feathers brush against him as she (they? It?) moved.

“There’s a lever on your right-hand side. Pull on it, please?”

Neku did so, and all three buckles popped open.

“You should keep the braces on when using this, so your legs do not slide. When you need to get out, pull that lever. Now, try closing them yourself. Seatbelt, then ankles.”

Neku did so.

“I’ll teach you how to move yourself after our chat. There isn’t much room to practice in here. Now, where were we?”

The hawk placed a hand under the low table, pulling up on it until it was at Neku’s chest level. “I will get myself a chair. Do you want anything to eat or drink?”

“I’ve seen Spirited Away, I’m not eating demon food,” Neku muttered.

“A Ghibli fan, are we?” the hawk chuckled. “Don’t worry. Eating our food invited won’t turn you into a pig. Remember, the parents just ate without permission.”

Neku stayed silent long enough for a younger kid to reasonably consider that, before his stomach betrayed him. His wings might have been tucked up in the angel’s plane, but he still had the appetite of one.

The hawk choked out a screeching sound Neku took for a laugh. “Sweet or salty?”

“Both.”

* * *

Neku ripped through a chicken pineapple skewer, eyeing the onigiri on the plate in front of him. The Hachioji reapers had some good chefs. He’d have to thank them.

The hawk eyed him, face difficult to read with only one eye and a beak. “Would you prefer I wait until you are done, or can I begin?”

Neku swallowed, nodding. “I’m dead, aren’t I?”

“Yes, yes you are. You peeked at my notes, didn’t you? Lots of big words in here.”

“I can read kyoiku kanji,” Neku pouted.

“Ah. Right. Sixth grade. You’d know most of what’s written here by now.” The hawk pressed hands (wings?) to the table, shifting uneasily on a rattan stool across from Neku. “My name is Hana and I’m a spirit guide. I’m here to offer you a chance to play a game for your life back.”

“If I don’t wanna?” Neku asked, a little pineapple juice dripping down his chin. He didn’t mind. It was nice being an unruly kid.

Hana twisted sideways, pulling the screen behind her open to reveal a wild of purple fog. “You’re welcome to leave,” she offered. “The mist will take you away.”

“Forever?”

“ ** _Forever_**.”

Neku sighed. He had one of these talks the time he died in Shibuya, too, though his entry fee the first week meant he didn’t remember it at all until he hit the scramble crossing pavement the second time. Next would come the paperwork, the rules, the Psychs, and finally, trading your fee away for your Player Pin. If that happened first, Neku would have remembered the rest of the discussion, but the Reapers **_had_** to be difficult.

“So, if I play this game, I win? Alive again?” Neku asked.

“Mhm.”

“Okay. I pick Othello.”

Hana stared dumbly at Neku. “Sakura-chan, this isn’t a duel. You don’t get to pick the game.”

“That’s stupid.” Neku smirked internally. Messing with his case worker was fun. He reached for a rice ball and tore into it, surprised to find it sweet and stuffed with a chestnut filling.

“The game lasts a week. You will need to complete challenges each day and take on tasks for the residents of this world. If you can secure an audience with Queen Himiko by next Saturday and beg of her, she will grant you life.”

Neku frowned. Himiko sounded awfully familiar. The… **_oh_**. The first Emperor of Japan, said to be able to predict the future. That had to be Crystal if she were the GM. At least it put her Friday night pants comment into more context. Royal kimono wasn’t exactly comfortable or easy to move in. Explained her Reaper handle too- according to the legends, Himiko used a crystal ball or mirror to see the future and the world outside.

“The fortune teller lady?” Neku asked aloud.

“Someone knows their history, yes. Be warned though, entering her castle without permission will cast you into oblivion. You’ll have to earn it. Help the people and be mindful of the darkness. You won’t be doing it alone, though. You’ll get to pick a school of magic to protect yourself with, and a group of people to work with.”

Neku was now mentally playing the Dragon Quest title song in his head.

“Can I fly? I want to fly.”

“That… levitation is an option, but magic isn’t free. You must pay a cost to play.”

Ah. Time to discuss Neku’s fee.

“I… think I have my lunch money, is that enough?”

“Not **_that_** kind of fee.” Hana pulled a long board out from a slat in the side of the table, marked with a grid. On the far left were pictures of the twelve zodiac animals. There was a column marked “magic” and another marked “price” followed by five more columns of fire, water, wood, gold, and earth. Neku had been on the nose. There was someone here for each slot on the board.

“There are sixty types of magic, ranging from pyrokinesis to levitation,” Hana explained. “Right now, there are sixty wayward souls receiving this same explanation. When everyone is done, plus time to deliberate, you will choose your space in this new world, taking the magic- and paying the fee- of the slot you choose.”

Hana lifted the board at an angle, flipping the Wood Rabbit piece over. It spun on a metal rod hidden in the board. Suddenly, on its own, the Fire Snake piece flipped to its other side, painted in solid red. Neku watched as a few others did as well. A few had been flipped before she’d even started explaining, too.

“Only one person can choose one slot. Once everyone has been given this explanation and time to think, the board will count down one minute. All souls will choose at the same time. Those flips were from other demonstrations.”

“What if I want… gold ox and it’s been flipped?”

“Then you were too slow.”

Hana flipped the Wood Rabbit piece back to its unclaimed side and slowly, the board returned to normal. “You will be able to do sixteen of the sixty kinds of magic once you’ve chosen. Any magic of your own animal or element, so Wood Rabbit can do any Wood magic, or any Rabbit. The one magic that is at that intersection will be exceptionally powerful for you. The only exception… is the Rooster. Choose a Rooster and you cannot do magic at all. So, fire rooster magic can be done by fire aligned people, but not the Rooster themselves.”

“Why would someone want that?” Neku asked.

Hana clicked a lever on the board, sliding back a panel and revealing the magic and fee part of the board. “They cannot use magic, but to some, the fee of receiving nothing is what they feel worth giving up. Read the board, ask me any questions. When you’re done, let me know. When all of you mortals are comfortable, we will begin the selection.”

Hana sat back down as Neku scanned the massive board.

Rabbit: Magic School- telekinetic bullets (determined by element)

Fee: Cannot see during the Game.

Neku blinked. He wasn’t expecting to be able to choose his own fee.

“Would you like some advice, Sakura-chan?”

Neku nodded. It was a lot to take in, overwhelming even.

Hana pointed at a row. “If I were you, given the circumstances, I’d be looking **_here_**.”

Neku brushed aside Hana’s finger-feather, reading the row.

Monkey: Magic school- telekinetic cuts and slashes

Fee: One’s legs will not work.

Neku really wanted to punch Haniel.

This was on **_purpose_**.

* * *

Neku had half a mind to be a Rooster just to spite her. Maybe it was just bad luck- Neku, after all, wasn’t expecting Haniel to actually recreate Sakura’s death for him to put him in shock- but he’d run under the assumption that she’d picked his fee for him because it felt like something she might do.

Dragon was forgetting who you were. Rat took away your dominant arm. Others took away hearing, ability to speak, enter shops and restaurants, eat…

Neku wasn’t going to survive a week on an Angel’s appetite not eating, though the option wouldn’t be fatal if it were offered. He wasn’t sure he **_could_** be hungry for a week and concentrate, even if it wouldn’t kill him.

Some of the fees absolutely sounded less severe than others. Boar, for example, gave up being able to smell? That wasn’t a penalty. Boars would still have access to Boar magic (teleportation spells), and eleven other spells of their element. It was kind of broken. Everyone would be reaching for that first.

It dawned on Neku. People would immediately know **_what_** thing you took. Maybe not immediately. But it would become apparent pretty fast if someone couldn’t see or hear, especially if they were used to that in life. Finding someone to partner with would be a strategic challenge.

This was going to breed a ton of resentment among everyone. Pigs and Roosters would probably get the brunt of it.

Neku brushed his fingers along the wood. The decision **_should_** be easy. Take the bait and be a Monkey. Or…

Or there was another option.

“I know what I want to pick.”

“I thought the choice would be easy,” Hana said with a nod and a smile, flipping the Wood Rabbit slot back to chosen. Several other parts had already flipped. The Reapers were probably using the communally linked board to let the others know when they were ready.

“When the whole board fills, they’ll flip back to white one at a time. When they’re all flipped back, make your choice. Then I’ll give you your magic and your clothes.”

“Clothes?”

“You’re not going out into the Land of the Dead looking like **_that_** , are you?”

 ** _Clack_**. Another two pieces turned red. About a third of the board was done now.

“What happens if someone says they don’t want to play?”

“They’re gone for good; you saw that.”

“No…” Neku started, interrupted by the noise from the board.

 ** _Clack_**.

“I mean… do we play with only fifty-nine people?”

“There’s always more dead, Sakura. If someone doesn’t want to play, I’m sure someone else might.”

 ** _Clack_**. **_Clack_**.

Neku was positive each additional click on the board was getting louder. He wasn’t sure if his choice would go quickly. It was an odd one for sure.

He was never big on healing spells, anyway.

The clacking continued for a few minutes, punctuating the silence between Neku and his warden.

“Do you… like this? Why do you do it?”

Hana was as unreadable as ever.

“I’m happy. I protect people like you.”

“Dead people.”

“Mhm.”

“Are you a girl or a boy?”

Hana shrill-laughed. “Girl.” She opened her arms wide, showing off the slits in her kimono at the armpit. “I guess that’s not a great indicator. Women wear kimono without the split too.”

**_Clack. Clack. Clack._ **

“I don’t know anything about kimono,” Neku admitted.

“And that’s time. You remember what to do, right?”

Neku nodded as he watched a spot flip back to white each second, the clacking growing deafening.

Fifteen…

Ten…

Five…

Neku’s hand hovered over the row he was gunning for, and at lightning speed, he flipped his choice over as the row of Pigs and Horse (couldn’t enter shops) clacked in unison. The other rows slowly filling in as people were scrambling for their second, third, fourth, or even fifth choices.

Hana looked down stunned.

“What- child- **_why_**? Why would you do that?”

Ram: Magic school: Healing and restoration

Fee: Cannot sleep.

“Nobody tells me what to do,” Neku pouted.

* * *

Hana sighed, looking Neku up and down. “You didn’t need to do that. If you’re blind, choosing Rabbit isn’t going to penalize you further. There was no reason not to pick Monkey. I thought I explained it well enough.”

“You did,” Neku insisted. “I made that choice myself.”

Hana sighed and put her head in a hand. “I’m either about to pull the biggest big brain moment of my life, or going to look really stupid,” she muttered, reaching around to a pouch hanging from her obi, looking inside for something. “Hand out.”

Hana dropped a poker chip in Neku’s open palm.

“I was **_expecting_** my case handler to get it right,” Neku said, flicking the token into the angel’s plane, nesting it in his feathers for later.

“Wait, what… holy shit.” Hana stuttered out.

“Your idiot Composer, yes,” Neku admitted, waving hands to himself. “Good work.”

Hana looked dumbfounded. “Why **_no sleep_**?”

“I don’t need to sleep. I took a guess that you don’t put Players in stasis here, made us camp or something, it wouldn’t be on that list otherwise. And I didn’t want to take the bait left out for me. A certain angelic someone decided to make me immobile, so I’d **_want_** to pick Monkey, er, that’s the Zodiac my angelic form is assigned to. I’m not falling for it.”

Hana crosses her arms, assessing Neku. “Mr. H. hex you, huh? Well, we **_do_** put the players in stasis between games. You get shuffled to the next days’ missions once you’ve completed what you need to. No sleep means-”

Neku cut her off with a hand. “I’ll find out for myself. I took a guess and was wrong. I’ll live with the consequences. Something tells me not being able to smell is more than just a minor disadvantage, too. Or being barred from shops.”

Hana smiled weakly. “It **_sucks_**. Honestly, the easier ones are Monkey and Tiger.”

“Tiger? Can’t talk?”

“We give-” Hana started again, silencing herself when Neku raised his hand, palm flat.

“Really. **_No spoilers_**. Treat me like a player, please. You said I still get something?”

“Your uniform and talismans, yes. Accept these, and your fee will be taken from you.”

Hana pulled open a large chest of drawers. “Water… ram… child size… hang on.”

“Here’s your mask,” Hana said, passing Neku a gorgeously carved wooden sheep mask on a ribbon. It didn’t have eye holes, so Neku assumed it was worn on the side of the head like a festival mask rather than on one’s face. There were eight indentations on it, round and flat, four per side.

“Do you know how to wear kimono? I have instructions and I can leave the room.”

“Not a clue.”

Hana pulled out a scroll. From Neku’s angle, he could see it was clear instructions with pictures on how to dress. She let out an irritated puff of air and looked back at Neku. “Your legs **_really_** aren’t working?”

“Nope and I have to un-bind all my magic to fix that,” Neku grumbled.

Hana sighed. “Today: had to dress our Composer because they’re an idiot.”

“Serves me right,” Neku admitted, glumly. “At least you’re not pants-ing me in the middle of Shibuya’s scramble crossing during a weekday lunch rush.”

“ ** _What_**?” Hana asked. “ ** _This_** I have to hear. I’m sorry, you can’t make a statement like that and **_not_** follow up.”

Neku undid the clasps on the overalls, pulling the bright yellow Mus Rattus shirt off and throwing it aside.

“Lever,” Hana reminded him, and he pulled the dead man’s switch to unbuckle himself. Hana tossed a white kimono at him.

“Nagajuban, put this on, hold it shut up top, and I’ll pull off your overalls. I don’t need to see any details, thank you.”

“My Game partner pants’ed me in the Scramble Crossing,” Neku admitted, trying to ignore the fact that he still had no feeling in his legs as Hana started tying up the kimono undershirt before passing him a patterned black kimono to wear over it- it took Neku a moment to remember that the traditional color for water in Japan wasn’t actually indigo. It took a bit of shifting, but the second robe went on and Hana deftly folded and tied it around him. “A button was coming loose, and when she realized the living couldn’t see us, she made me take them off to fix them right then and there.”

“I would bet you money a Reaper found this **_hilarious_**.”

“Oh, yeah, I was still getting flack for it after going Angel. A couple of the Reapers call me the Boxer Rebellion.”

“Well, **_Sakura_** ,” Hana said, flicking him on the forehead. “Time to pick your magic. You’ll get two from us, you can wield up to eight at once, but you’ll need to find more yourself. You can trade your talismans with other players or to the yokai for necessities.”

“Where’d your gruff, no-nonsense persona go?”

“Where’d your sniveling kid persona go?”

“Touché,” Neku admitted. “I don’t mind taking a break if you don’t.”

Hana shook her head. “The whole district is going to give you their chip at this rate.”

“I’ll make a bet with you,” Neku said. “I think I’ll get five or fewer chips. Yours included.”

“I could just tell everyone,” Hana admitted.

“Okay, then we’ll go the reverse. That would be your bet. I’ll be on the side of six or more. If I win, I’ve failed as an actor. And I’ll want art lessons from you for a full month, whatever it is you do.”

“Well, congrats, because acting is my specialty,” Hana said. “Now, what if it is five or less?”

“Aside from me getting the satisfaction that I was right? Neku smirked, as Hana sorted through a box of talismans, slotting a water-black sheep one into Neku’s mask, before offering the other sheep and water pins to Neku to pick one. “Water Rat, please, and name something you want. If its in my power to grant, you can have it. Don’t win this wager, and you’ll just get the reward for flushing me out. And no trying to misdirect other Reapers, either. If they have a hunch I’m the fake, let them sort it out.”

“Anything?”

“Well, almost. What is it?”

“I want to see a Broadway show. With my mom… if that’s possible.”

“Mom’s dead, I take it?”

“Or incredibly old. I don’t know. She’d be… hm. 87 this year.”

“The first one’s no problem,” Neku said. “I can’t guarantee the second. If she’s alive or a Reaper in another district, then yes to both.”

“Wait… really?”

“Just tell me the show and anything about her, yeah. I can get you guys there. Give you a whole day in New York if you wanted it.”

Hana looked near in tears.

“Hey, hey, remember, gotta earn it,” Neku said.

“I wouldn’t spill be beans if my tail-feathers were on fire. Now come on, you can have a few practice laps outside the Room of Reckoning before I send you off. Gotta get used to that chair.”

* * *

“I see what you mean by Monkey being easy,” Neku said. “Well, easi ** _er_**.” To his surprise, the little room had a ramp off the wood and down to ground level, like they expected someone with a wheelchair or a blind cane to need one. Neku punted himself around the small courtyard. He wasn’t going to be playing wheelchair basketball or race anytime soon, but he was handling himself with enough grace to not make a complete and utter fool of himself.

“Are you good?”

“Think so.”

“Talisman practice?”

“Is that normally a thing?”

“Yes.”

“Then yes.”

Hana pulled a flask off her hip, pouring out a circle of salt. “Go ahead, then. Talismans use the power of your mind. Water-Ram will slowly heal you over time. Water-Rat unleashed a tidal wave of lava.”

Neku was an Angel, so didn’t exactly need to form pacts to access his magic. But wouldn’t a Player need a partner to use their pins?

Except… these weren’t pins. Neku could already feel their power welling in him alone.

This wasn’t Shibuya. He needed to remind himself. This wasn’t some knockoff game. Some things seemed universal, but assuming this was just Shibuya with a Warring-States demon coat of paint slapped over wouldn’t do him any good.

Neku wasn’t going to worry about healing for now; he focused on a burn in his chest, welling within. The ground swelled beneath his chair, splattering outward in a gasp of heat strong enough to leave him choking. The larva burst forth until the entire section of packed dirt within the salt had turned liquid, then hardened to a mirror-shine black obsidian.

“You… may want to hold back a little,” Hana admonished, once the dust had settled and Neku rolled lazy circles on his newly minted pavement, his own chair completely unharmed by the unfathomably hot liquid fire.

“Oops,” Neku admitted.

“Don’t blame me if people suss you out,” Hana whispered in his ear. “You’re on your own now.”

Hana turned, re-entering the small building they’d come from. Neku watched, shocked, as the building peeled open, flattening like a cardboard dollhouse, before the mist billowed in and sucked it away.

When the mist receded, a winding dirt path revealed itself, flanked by floating lanterns on each side, filled with fireflies.

Neku could hear them sing, halfway between a hum and gentle, wordless lullaby. Neku gripped the wheels on his chair, listening carefully, as he began to propel himself forward alone.

* * *

Neku felt ice run down the back of his neck. It was late September, it shouldn’t be this cold, this early, especially not bundled up in two layers of thick kimono and equally padded jika-tabi.

The singing stopped and Neku… **_smelled_** something. He wasn’t much a stranger to sniffing out magic anymore, certainly not as an angel. He might not be able to pinpoint exactly whose magic he was detecting, but he could gauge location. And intent.

This was being amplified loudly enough a Player would notice…

…except those poor Boars.

Neku spared a glance behind him. Set by set, the lanterns changed from a soft golden glow to a blue fury, sounding a drumbeat for every lantern changed.

Whatever it was, it was advancing rapidly. And it was **_not_** happy.

Neku gripped his wheels, peeling out as fast as his tiny arms could manage. The dirt path, thankfully, obliged him, free of any debris or rocks.

The drums sounded louder behind, while the music ahead remained audible and serene.

Neku bit his lip as he exerted himself, not tired, per se, but running out of mental fortitude. A jug of Hanekoma’s coffee wouldn’t have been unwelcome.

He understood the point of this little path. **_Tutorial_**. Those who lost their eyesight could navigate by the sound and smell. Those who couldn’t walk could roll along the unbidden pathway. Those who couldn’t hear could see by the lamplight and smell the approaching terror. Neku would bet money whatever chasing him was some Reaper just doing their job. He hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Noise here. This area **_had_** to be swept regularly by the Reapers themselves if they deemed it safe enough for Players to traverse alone. A single weak Noise catching a Player here without a partner would be instant destruction.

The drums and scent grew more dire. If Neku wasn’t panicking, he might have been able to place it. But, despite knowing he would be just fine, his adrenaline did its level best to betray him, between the fire, the drums, the ice on his neck, and now the increasingly ominous footfalls that sounded like a house was chasing him.

Neku made another turn. The pathway was winding up gently and nearing a solid stone wall.

Solid, save a portal open between a torii gate into some pitch-black cavern.

Neku picked up the pace until his arms burned, then skidded to a halt.

The torii was barred by one of the worst advancements in video gaming- the chest high wall. Worse, it wasn’t even chest high. About ten centimeters off the ground sat an elevated horizontal pole. It was wood, staked into the dirt on pegs. He couldn’t go around the torii- it was solid stone. He’d have to maneuver his chair over the pole.

Neku hissed, staring at the stupid thing. Defeated by- that was a **_ghost pole_** of all things. Holy places had them from the superstition that ghosts had no feet, so they couldn’t step over the pole and be stuck outside. Many shrines and temples had taken them away for accessibility reasons recently; they’d rather led those with walkers **_in_** than leave the ghosts **_out_**.

Neku grit his teeth. This was a **_test_**. The music and strong scent of the rapidly approaching- Neku glanced behind him to see a howling Chinese dragon emerge from the fog, okay, that **_was_** cool, he had to admit- were testing the Rabbits on those senses, this one was his. Monkeys would have their telekinetic cutting magic, and they could use it un-partnered. He should have been able to slash the bar to bits and keep rolling. Those who couldn’t eat or enter shops, they’d probably find an issue to reckon with their own choice later.

But Neku **_wasn’t_** a Monkey. He could heal, and use lava. The game had been designed to teach those to work around their new condition but hadn’t been prepared for someone to not have the aid necessary. It was built into the system itself.

If Neku used his lava, he wasn’t sure he could control it well enough to not set the whole wooden torii on fire with it.

The dragon howled, teeth bared, furry beard swiping at the ground as Neku felt its putrid breath close in on him.

“I hope this works,” Neku muttered as he yanked the dead man’s switch on the wheelchair, pushing forward and down with all his strength, propelling him forward into a tumble over the bar and on the other side of the torii and sending his wheelchair backwards to crash into his pursuer.

Neku panted, legs twisted under him just barely inside the warm, humid, and wet-floored cavern. He was already in need of a change of clothes and a hot bath- the floor of it felt like it was covered in mucus. And it was squishy. And moving.

No, he really didn’t want to think about where he was right now. **_Gross_** , that’s where he was.

Neku looked up, sparing a glance at the dragon, head butting air. At least his panicked intuition was right- it was stuck on the other side of the gate. It was stuck in another way, too- its snout was caught in the back straps of the discarded wheelchair as it groaned and tried to pull the thing off with its front claws.

Neku pulled himself just to the edge of the boundary, watching the dragon squirm. He had half a mind to laugh at the poor Reaper, before reminding himself he was currently a twelve-year-old girl and needed to at least act a little scared of the thing.

“Mister Dragon?” he asked. “I’m sorry I hurt you. Can I have my chair back?”

The dragon stopped thrashing and looked down at Neku.

**_I swear to Someone if they sent me the wrong person to chase, I’m going to slap Haniel a new one._ **

The dragon wasn’t a Reaper, Neku noticed with a straight face, trying to keep Sakura’s memories in easy scanning range with his own under tighter lock and key.

It was Joshua.

Neku could have fun with this.

“Hay-knee-yell?”

 ** _I projected that out, didn’t I?_** the dragon grumped. **_Sorry to startle, little one. I owed a friend a favor, but it seems I’ve chased down the wrong person. Give me a moment and I promise I’ll return you- Wait. Neku. What the fuck. That IS you._**

Neku giggled behind a hand and pushed thoughts up to the top of his consciousness so any other Reapers couldn’t overhear. **_Using your Angel powers to scam me is cheating. I’m not counting that as being found out._**

**_Haniel told me who you were. She also said Players can use Psychs alone and that she’d seen you practice before coming here. You should have just slashed open the bar and kept going. What gives?_ **

Neku tipped his mask so that Joshua could see the talismans attached, speaking into the cutest voice he could muster. “Can you feel what powers I have, Mr. Dragon, sir?”

**_Something healing and something… fire?_ **

Neku nodded and reverted to thought. He’d kept two of his angelic powers unbound- telepathy and mental blocks, the former in case of emergency so he could call Hainel or Hanekoma for a Hail Mary if needed, the latter so the high ranking angels who could read Player minds couldn’t suss him out by cheating. **_I thought I might blow up the whole torii, so I tried plan B, ditching the chair. No slash Psych. Anyway. It’s Sunday. Don’t you have people in your own Game to revive?_**

 ** _Wanted to see yours while I had some free time this morning. Man, Hachioji runs early. It’s 5 freaking AM._** Joshua thrashed his head a little more before giving up, shrinking down to his usual humanoid self to disentangle out of the twisted strap. “Enjoy your chair, stay safe little one, et cetera. Ow, that stung. Don’t look at me like that. Dragons and tanuki are notorious shapeshifters.”

Joshua shook himself out and returned to being a dragon, grinning with giant eyes and gleaming scales under a beard of white fur. **_And don’t worry, I’ll make sure Vanitas isn’t late for school tomorrow. Enjoy your vay-cay!_**

Joshua tipped the wheelchair over the ghost-stopping beam with one giant claw, then bounded into the fog. Slowly, Neku pulled himself up into the chair with an uncomfortable squelch, wrinkling his nose, locked the restraints on, and headed into the humid darkness.

* * *

Neku didn’t know how long he’d been circling, but his hands were wet and slimy from touching the walls, his long hair was in messy clumps, and his butt and legs were still coated in slime from the earlier fall, leaving him with a distinctly sticky feeling of having slipped in mud that wouldn’t dry.

It was dark, it was wet, it was hot, and Neku was **_hungry_**.

“Hellooooo?” he called out.

“Hellooooooo!” the room rumbled back to him. It wasn’t an echo of his own- well, of Sakura’s- voice.

“I’m lost.”

“Are you?”

No **_shit_** , Sherlock, Neku thought to himself.

“Yeah, I’ve been going in circles.”

“Poor little girl, at this rate you’ll be gobbled up.”

 ** _Gobbled_**? Neku let go of a wheel and placed a hand back on the wall. It was warm, and wet and… oh-god-he-was-touching-the-inner-lining-of-some-big-creature’s-mouth, wasn’t he?

He shrieked like the little girl he was, and without thinking about it, threw out a wave of lava at the nearest wall.

The whole whatever-Neku-was-in rumbled within and around him, before a large pustule opened, pushing Neku through.

“Gross-gross-gross-gross- ** _GROSS_** ,” Neku screamed as his chair surfed on a tidal wave of black-hot liquid fire out of the monster belly and out into a firefly-lantern lit opening. Neku could hear the bugs’ music again as he regained control of his teacup-spinning chair, swallowing before he dared look backwards in case the tableau was gory enough to make him puke.

Amongst the fog was the corpse of a giant golden dragon, like the form Josh had taken to chase him, only many times its size. Already, about twenty or thirty holes had been punched open along its side, ranging from slashes to scorch marks.

Neku was just surprised he hadn’t found any of those exits already. That was a puzzle for another time. For now, he wiped his slimy hands off on the lower half of his kimono, blanching a little and hoping this shrine had a washing station. He’d wheel his whole chair inside it if he were allowed at this point.

* * *

Neku was never more grateful for the stone basin just inside a shrine courtyard in his life. Two foxes in shrine maiden clothing greeted him, and immediately took it upon themselves to wipe down whatever they could.

“Hey-I-can-wash- ** _myself_** ,” Neku insisted as a bamboo ladle full of ice water was dumped on his head, trailing straight down his back and chilling him to the, well, not bone, but bone equivalent.

“You killed a dragon in holy ground,” one of them snarled at him as she ran a rough brush through his hair. They were making it as awkward as possible on purpose for everyone, at least, as a man with a red kimono and horse mask stumbled into view to be sized upon by two more foxes with brushes and ladles.

Neku took the little kid approach and started sniffling. In reality, cold things never sat well with him after he’d died the first time around, amplified more when he’d gone Angel. He used being halfway to a sneeze to his advantage. “I didn’t wanna kill a dragon,” he choked out. “I like animals. I just wanna hug my bun-bun!”

Neku was extremely glad Joshua wasn’t here for this. He’d be **_recording_**.

One of the foxes sighed, rubbing her forehead with a hand. “Come, child, if you think you can do this yourself, you can approach the cistern.”

“What about me?” grumped the middle-aged man being equally manhandled.

“You’re an adult, you should know better,” one of the shrine maidens barked at him, swatting him on the head with her ladle. “Now **_sit still_** and let’s get that filth off before you present yourself to the village god.”

* * *

Neku waited nervously in the stone courtyard. By now, most of the participants were present. Most were older than Neku- not just the person he’d replaced, but his own real age, only one other person of the group looked under fifteen and another two looked like older teens.

Neku could practically feel the hatred seething off the five Monkeys towards him. Who could blame them? Neku was a person in a wheelchair who didn’t take a penalty matching that. In their eyes, each of them probably thought they should have gotten the ‘easier’ mask.

It was the one in yellow, a man about Neku’s father’s age, who finally broke the silence, pointing a long, bony finger at him.

“Idiot kid! **_You’re_** the reason I’m stuck in this stupid chair! **_I_** went for Sheep and **_you_** took it!”

“I…” Neku started. The problem was, the man, while visibly on a raging tirade, had a point.

“You’re already a stupid cripple,” he continued, fuming. “Go back and hide away from society. You’re useless and you-”

The fire-horse man from the wash basin stepped next to Neku, pointing his hand like a finger gun at the Monkey, shooting out a steaming stream of water straight between his eyes. “Shut up,” he hissed as he made a finger movement like he was reloading his own hand. “Or next time that blast’ll be more than just hot steam.” The Horse tapped the mask on the side of his head. “Fire Horse specialty. One hot water gun,” he said with a sly smile. “Call me Ace. Call **_him_** an asshole.”

Neku frowned. “I can stand up for myself, you know.”

“Ah, see, there’s a joke there I don’t want to make,” Ace said, shrugging good-naturedly. “But you certainly talked back to those miko earlier. I swear, they were enjoying being abrasive.”

“Personality, or cleaning?”

“ ** _Yes_** ,” Ace said brightly. “Anyway, I’m surprised nobody’s given **_me_** a verbal lashing yet. Not being able to go into shops sounds like a normal Tuesday for me.”

“What are you, **_poor_**?” Neku blurted out like the child he was pretending to be.

Ace just laughed, pushing strands of silver hair away while glaring over Neku to the abrasive Monkey. “Naw. Just… have a son who’s paralyzed from the neck down. You’re quite the independent little lady. He… well. He needs a lot more help. I need to win this game. I can’t expect his mother to be able to take care of him all alone.”

“When- when you woke up after you died, someone explained the game to you too, right?” Neku asked.

“Mhmmm.”

“My person was this scary bird lady and she mentioned we’d get partners. I hope they don’t pick for us. I always get that one mean kid for school group projects.”

“Are you asking me to be your partner if we get to pick?” Ace asked, kneeling to look at Neku at eye level. “Hmmm… it’s a pretty tough decision. I am trying to win, little lady.”

“Sakura,” Neku pouted.

“ ** _Sakura-chan_**. Well, I don’t know how good you are with this magic stuff, but you’ve got the yokai wrapped around your finger. I think we’d make a great team. You butter them up and I’ll do the fighting.”

Neku did not want to correct this man. He’d see soon enough how good Neku was, even with most his power bound. “They really are demons?”

“The first one I met called himself a Reaper. I didn’t have a bird greet me. Mine was a **_wolf_**. Two and a half meters tall, thick grey fur, and a sword in his belt.” Ace stood up and spread his arms wide to show what he meant. Neku nodded along. The guy seemed like a good dad. He was about to reply when a drum sounded. They both winced.

“Sounds like everyone made it, then,” Ace muttered, looking around the group while bouncing a finger as if he were counting everyone.

* * *

Neku watched the procession with interest. So far, everyone had been an animal… well, except for Joshua when he’d transformed to get his head out of the wheelchair (Neku wished he’d had his phone SO badly). So, it wasn’t some sort of mass hallucination… or Neku would have seen Joshua as an animal, too.

And only the most powerful Reapers could even hope to shapeshift.

So, how were all the Reapers doing this? A **_few_** he could chalk up as actually being animals; he didn’t know if that was possible, but nothing said it wasn’t either. At this point, though, he’d seen too many. Some of them had to have been the humans he’d spoken to Friday, he just needed to learn their trick.

For that matter, he hadn’t seen any buildings or people either. Living people, at least. Hachioji was a little more rural out of the city center, but not this rural. The fog was obscuring quite a bit but-

“-twelve families of five. No duplicate animals or elements in any group.”

Neku had completely spaced out during the explanation, though one of the monks, a deer with stubbed horns, held a placard with what the head monk was saying aloud. Of **_course_** he had spaced out into his own internal world, trying to rationalize everything. He had to stop thinking up how they were conjuring this mess and start learning to react to it.

Ace gently tapped Neku’s shoulder. “Princess, you okay there? Want to look for some more friends?”

“Hm?” Neku asked. “Wait, you want to team with me? I’m the smallest one here.”

“Sooner you than those rude apes, don’t you think?”

Neku giggled, covering his mouth with his hand from the sound in surprise.

“Any idea who else, Mister Ace?”

“Just Ace,” he said, eyeing up the rest of the crowd, some scrambling to team up. Boars, horses, dogs, and rams seemed to be a hot commodity, except the two of them.

“This is a loud mess,” Ace said, watching as the dust began to settle.

“We should get a Rabbit and a Rooster,” Neku offered. “Once some groups finish, there’s going to be a problem of reorganizing. If there’s going to be twelve groups with no duplicates, some groups are going to need to fight to fill their team.”

Ace raised an eyebrow. “A charmer **_and_** a strategist? This is what some of those jerks get when they overlook kids like you.”

Neku couldn’t help but blush a little. “There’s one more thing we can do,” Neku offered.

“What’s that?”

“Help the Roosters get groups. Nobody’s going to want someone that can’t use magic in a place like this. The path we took to get here probably reminded them all that. Can you do me a favor and holler for all of them?”

Ace rubbed the bridge of his nose, but obliged.

Five people rushed over, happy to be called.

“H-hi,” Neku said, turning on the cute kid persona to maximum. “I’m Sakura, and this is Ace. We’re looking for a Rooster to join us. And we wanna help all of you too.”

“I’m not going anywhere without her,” a Rooster in silver kimono said, jabbing a thumb at a Dragon girl in gold. Both looked to be in their late twenties. By the mannerisms, it was clear the two were siblings. And, of course, the Dragon wouldn’t remember that.

“Well, that’s perfect!” Ace said warmly. “We’re fire and water. You’re… metal and earth, then, right? We’d just need wood… someone in green.”

“How does that help **_us_** , though?” an older man with a cane asked, clad in black like Neku.

Neku pointed to his mask. “Just because you can’t use your talismans doesn’t mean someone else can’t. The lady who gave me mine said we can trade. If you have stuff that’s not your own color, you can offer that to groups to take you.”

The five of them looked at each other, realization dawning on them, as they hurriedly snapped the talismans off their masks and extolled what they were to each other.

“Metal Rooster slows time down,” the young woman offered to the group. “My other one is Metal Boar.”

“What do Fire and Water Rooster do?”

“Burn.”

“Freeze.”

Ace smiled. “New friend, you want to trade for those?”

“Uh, yeah. Sure.”

“What’s your name, Miss?” Neku piped up, as the Roosters finished trading, the other four running off to hawk their powers to groups.

“I’m uh… is a nickname okay?”

“Well, seeing as Ace isn’t my real name, I’d call it fair,” Ace said jovially.

“Well, call me Star. And… that’s Moon. My sister.”

“I figured as much,” Ace said gently. “You look alike.”

“I’m going to go see if the Wood Rabbit has a group yet,” Neku offered. “I’ll be right back.”

He rolled through the collective, some groups adamant about their teams while others still bickering away, complaining about what people to trade among them. Neku waited until he was close to the Wood Rabbit, one of the two people who looked like they were older teens.

“Wood Rabbit person!” Neku said aloud. She lifted her head and adjusted herself. She’d been leaning on the white cane she’d been given for balance.

“Someone calling me?”

“Hi!” Neku tried to be as friendly as possible. “I’m in a wheelchair so I don’t want to come closer and roll on your foot. Do you have a team yet?”

“No,” she said, defeated.

“We’d like you on ours if you don’t mind? We need someone Wood, and with all the audio cues the game has, you’d be a big help.”

“A big help?” she asked derisively. “I **_doubt_** it.”

“Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?” Neku asked, stretching his vowels.

“How old are you anyway?”

“Oh, oh, I’m sorry, I should have asked your name first, shouldn’t I? I’m Sakura, I’m from Motohongo. I’m twelve.”

The teen chuckled sadly. “Sure. Whatever. I’ve got nothing better to do, Sakura-chan. I’m Momo. Pleased to meet you.”

“If you walk towards me, I’ll take your hand and put it on my armrest, okay?”

Momo broke out in raucous laughter. “I feel like my little brother ordering me around all over again. Okay, Sa-chan. Let’s go.”

* * *

“So.” The head monk, a literal bear of a man roared at the group. “Your goal is to secure an audience with the Queen. Who is already distraught at you having killed her pet, might I add?” The bear pointed to the carcass they’d all emerged from. “Now, it **_is_** a dragon, after all, so you should be able to revive it. Or convince a guard to let you in to see her. Or do enough good deeds among our people that she may be willing to overlook the transgression. You will have until the clock strikes midnight on Saturday eve to complete this. Fail, and may the abyss welcome you. You are under no obligation to do this with your group. Work together, or not. It matters not. You are only in groups because…”

Neku felt the world tilt under his wheels, his stomach, already screaming mercy from the chase and maze, lurching from the impact. He remembered this feeling. It was the same as when Riku was killed by Coco, the whole world turning on its axis.

These Reapers could use whatever magic Sora’s people had been bound by. Jittering in time.

Star gasped, and Neku looked up.

The five of them were the only ones left in the courtyard.

* * *

“What did you DO?” Moon asked, grabbing the sister she’d forgotten.

The bear only provided a long, sharp smile. One of the miko carried out a scroll and hung it up, writing gracefully with a brush as the bear continued to speak.

Neku frowned. Nobody in their group was deaf. Maybe it was out of habit.

Neku shook out his head. He had to stop wasting energy on guesswork.

“I’ve sent everyone else away but you,” the bear continued once the miko was ready to write down what he said. “And here’s the catch of all catches. Himiko will only peer from the abyss once a week. Anyone in her audience chamber may ask of her to be brought back. But once she starts the ceremony, no one else may enter. Work with your teammates or leave them behind to get there first. It’s not my concern. And know, there’s eleven other teams working to this end as well. You may hear of their exploits, but you will never see them again.

“Good luck.”

The bear turned on its heel and returned to the inner sanctum of the shrine, flanked by priests and miko.

“Wait, that’s **_it_**?” Momo snapped, as the last of the footsteps faded away. “Revive a dragon, bribe a guard, or do some good deeds? Does anyone even know where Himiko **_is_**?! This is insane. It’s like they’re handing us a tuba and asking us to present them with a five-course meal with it.”

“Now, now. Momo-chan was it? The shrine maidens who washed us earlier are still here. It doesn’t hurt for us to talk to them.”

“Speak of the devil and she will appear,” one said, carting scrolls and a handful of hourglasses on clips to the group. “Our high priest is often abrasive. Especially to humans invading our domain. You should not be here.”

“No shit,” Momo muttered. “I **_should_** be in a gutter somewhere.”

“That would often be how someone ends up in this world after the end,” she said slyly.

“You will have until the timer runs out each day to do as much as you can towards your goal,” she added, showing them the hourglasses, even flipping one upside down to show the sand falling up until she let go of it to spin it back upright. “Today you’ll have three hours. Use them how you see fit. Anyone or anything that attacks you without provocation… you should shoot to kill. Not all of us are so friendly.”

“If you’re friendly, I hate to see **_un_** friendly,” Momo hissed to the ground.

“Next. These scrolls. They’ll keep track of what you’ve done, where you’ve been, and anything important people have said that you might want to follow up on. You can also add to it yourself and keep notes. Any talismans you acquire that you can’t or don’t want to wield can be dropped inside the scrollpost. Your scroll or its contents can never be stolen from you once it is bound to you.”

Neku spared a moment to mentally consider them as Hachioji’s cell phones, before banishing the thought. Reapers couldn’t read Player minds back in Shibuya, unless they were making an extremely concerted effort, but Neku didn’t want to take chances that his own mind would betray him.

“That’s great and all,” Momo hissed. “I’m still blind.”

“These scrolls are not like the plain paper of your world. If you speak to them, they will speak to you. You need not even carry it. When you have finished using it, throw it over your shoulder. It will float behind you.”

“So, like… hey Alexa, where’s the nearest coffee shop?” Momo asked the air, as the fox deposited her scroll in her hand.

“The nearest coffee shop serving yokai is approximately one hour’s walk away. Shall I offer guidance?” the scroll asked in a pleasant voice.

“Good day, mortals,” the miko said, excusing herself.

The five were left standing, staring dumbfounded at the scroll in Momo’s left hand.

“This is a video game. We’ve been sucked into a **_video game_** ,” Star whined. “I **_hate_** video games. I’m going to wake up in my bed tomorrow, extremely confused. That’s all. Right. **_Right_**?”

Ace shook his head sadly. “I remember dying. I’m going to believe what I see for now, er, apologies, Momo-chan.”

“Eh. Whatever. Who knew foxes drank coffee though?”

“Hey Alexa,” Neku said to his own scroll, opening it to reveal a hand drawn map with only the shrine complex filled in. “Where’s the nearest pub?”

The group stared at him. Right. **_Twelve_**.

“I play a lot of Dragon Quest,” Neku insisted. “This is a game, right? You go to the pub for quests. Not a coffee shop.”

“The nearest pub is a five-minute walk. Shall I begin guidance?” A bright red X drew itself onto Neku’s map, outside the area already discovered.

“Only five minutes, huh? I suppose that doesn’t hurt,” Ace suggested. “Shall we?”

* * *

The group ambled, following the scroll’s visual and audio directions out of the shrine and down and around a hill, then back up another narrow, but stair-free rock-free path. Neku was already feeling the burn in his shoulders and a sore lower back, happy he didn’t have to contend with gravel, too.

“Everyone here a Hachioji native?” Ace asked cordially, having become something of the group’s de-facto leader.

“Mhm,” Neku said.

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Momo complained.

“I don’t know,” Moon offered.

“We are,” Star said with a nod.

“Well-” Ace started, when the group heard a rustle. A graffiti-like frog hopped out into the dirt pathway, shrieking, spitting bubbles in Ace’s face. He yelped, shielding his eyes.

“What’s going on?” Momo asked.

“Monster, stay back,” Neku said, pushing her hand off the armrest as he rolled straight towards the frog and its friends, charged up some lava, and liquified the ground under him.

They’d never called Noise to them. They’d never even scanned anything.

It wasn’t like they even had player pins, how could they?

“Is everyone okay?” Neku asked. “Ace, I can heal you.”

Neku held out a hand, glowing faintly green.

“That wasn’t the reaction time of a little kid,” Ace said, once he stood up and dusted the knees of his kimono. “You’re not secretly a yokai, are you?”

He looked deadly serious.

Neku sighed. He wasn’t great at lying, so it was better to come clean without exposing everything.

“I… um. This isn’t my first game,” Neku admitted. “I died before. I’m used to fighting those monsters. They’ll rip your soul to shreds if you’re not careful. That’s why it’s better to stay in a group. Alone, we’re not great.”

Everyone but Momo stared. She merely shrugged. “So, you know what to do already then? Lead the way, Little Miss Cheat Code.”

“Well… sorry,” Neku said, genuinely apologetic. He needed a white lie, just in case any Reapers were listening, to throw them off the trail. “I was downtown and coming back from Akihabara.” **_That was true, he’d gone there first to pick up a new set of headphones._** “And there was an accident.” **_Also technically true, even though it wasn’t in Akiba_**. “Akihabara’s game is literally like a video game, with points, and DLC and costumes and powerups and stuff.” **_Equally true._**

Neku sighed out. Hopefully, they didn’t ask more.

Moon reached around and squeezed him tight in an iron grip hug. “Oh my goodness, you poor thing! Your parents must be worried out of their mind.”

“Uh-uh. When I was reincarnated last time, it was like the time in the Game didn’t happen. Only my partner and I remembered. My school didn’t even think I was gone. It was real weird for a while.” Neku smiled, chipper. “She and I stayed good friends, too! She wants to be a fashion designed when she grows up. She makes really cute plushies, even if I thought her cat looked like a pig.”

Ace visibly relaxed. “That’s… good to hear, Sakura-chan. And thank you, I feel like I’d never been hurt at all. Next time there’s monsters like that, we all should practice. You’ll just heal us up, right, little lady?”

“Mhm.” Neku admitted. “And Momo? I’m sorry for running off like that.”

“You saved all our butts,” she said nonchalantly. “C’mon, let’s get going. That stupid navigation app is beeping like crazy.”

* * *

As it turned out, the pub was right past the bend in the road, invisible thanks to the fog until they were nearly on top of it.

And it had a ramp.

“Ow,” Ace complained, as he bounced off a force field. “Well, looks like my fee’s come into play. I’ll wait outside.”

“Don’t wait alone,” Neku cautioned. “I can stay with you.”

Ace shook his head. “No, you know this the best of all of us. Moon, would you be so kind? We can both practice our magic out here.”

“What, don’t trust the blind girl?” Momo asked.

“It’s not trust, its safety,” Ace admitted. “But… I suppose out of the four of us that can use magic, you need the most practice, don’t you? What can you do?”

“I can shoot piercing bullets and…. I can telekinetically throw stuff.”

Neku smiled softly as he rolled up the wooden ramp into the impossibly ancient looking building, flanked by what he was mentally calling the Solar Sisters. A red panda in a bright blue hanten shouted halfway into “welcome” before he, and the rest of the patrons froze.

“Dragon killers,” he said coldly, looking at them with side eye. “You can order, pay, and get the fuck out.”

“Language!” Star snapped at him; arms crossed. “Child present.”

The panda snorted but softened a little. “No booze for minors.”

Star shivered a little. “No booze for any of us, if you please.” She fidgeted and grabbed for her sister’s hand. The bartender followed her gaze to their intertwined fingers and Star’s shaking.

“Three waters, just a moment,” he barked at them. “I don’t charge for slurry. Just don’t harass the regulars.”

“Um, Mr. Panda, sir?” Neku asked, turning up the charm.

“ ** _What_**?”

“I’m sorry I made you angry. They said earlier we could try and re-re-”

“Revive,” Moon offered slowly.

“That. Re-whatever the dragon. I didn’t mean to hurt it, but it was eating me! And I didn’t know I was **_in_** a dragon!”

The panda loomed over the counter. “Yosuke. Name’s Yosuke. Good luck trying to bring that thing back to life,” he sighed out. “Honestly, it ain’t worth it. You humans keep killing the poor thing.”

Neku frowned. “Okay, well, it’s right by where I entered where I died. What if after we brought it to life, we got it to move?”

“ ** _Move_**? You gonna move an entire mountain of a beast by yourself kid? You’re bonkers.”

“Maybe if we talked to it. I talked to a little dragon that chased me today.”

Yosuke dropped and shattered a ceramic cup. It didn’t look like acting either. “Little lady, how the **_hell’d_** you convince a dragon to chat with you? They barely talk to **_us_**.”

“I thought he was going to eat me, so I unlocked myself from my chair and shoved it in his face. It got stuck on him and he couldn’t get it off. I told him I was sorry. I just don’t wanna be dinner.”

Yosuke rubbed his face. “You… **_look_**. I’m not even going to bother. You’re **_crazy_**.”

“Why is that dragon here? Isn’t he the Queen’s pet?” Star pressed, picking up what Neku had put down. “Shouldn’t he be at the castle with her? Why was he all the way out here? Why were we all chased by smaller dragons?”

“Those are his kids, poor thing just hatched eggs. He’s up here to protect ‘n raise ‘em. Castle’s down in the city center, well what’s left of it. It’s about an hours’ walk from here.”

“Oh!” Neku said, grinning. “It’s like when my kitty had babies. We gotta get the dragon to trust us. And then it’s babies won’t attack people anymore. Mommy will discipline them.”

Yosuke laughed hard, nearly sending spit flying. “Likes I says, crazy. But crazy enough to work. That bas-” Moon and Star glared at him again “-that old dragon’s been bad for business. Nesting right by the shrine means way less customers. You help me, I help you. **_Good_**? And no more killin’ things that talk back.”

“We have friends outside waiting for us,” Moon said. “We don’t want to leave them for too long. We got attacked on the way here.”

“Did the thing look like it was made ‘a paint?”

“Mhmm.”

“Shikigami,” the barkeep grumbled. “They’re conjurations. Mostly made by the Faded ones you might spot near the paved roads. Don’t harass the Faded, they don’t see you anyway. But the conjugations gotta go. They’re not people, just blast ‘em if you see ‘em. They won’t hesitate to kill you on the spot.”

“Faded?”

“Eh, you’ll see ‘em eventually. ‘S what we call the creepy mask-wearing people. Not like your masks- just flat white discs covering their whole face. They’ll walk right through you.”

He sighed. “They won’t bother you none, but they breed the shikigami like crazy. Don’t even try hurting the Faded, ya can’t. But if you see any of their nasty painted demon pets, even if they’re on a Faded, get rid of ‘em, unless you want more problems later.”

Neku frowned. If the Faded bred shikigami- **_Noise_** \- then they were living humans. Why would they all be in masks? How would the Reapers convince living humans to walk around with them?

Neku shook his head, again banishing the thought. This place had too many questions and not enough answers.

“You okay there, little dragon killer?” Yosuke asked as Neku’s stomach grumbled loudly enough to startle a pair of wolves playing hanafuda at a table.

“Tell ya what. I’ll get you something on the house. Only this time. Those shikigami can sometimes drop their core essence when you kill ‘em. They’re the talismans you all have,” he added, tapping his temple to match where Neku, Moon, and Star has their own masks fastened. “Bring me some, and I’ll trade you for better crap or food. Eatin’ ain’t required or nothin’ round here, but bein’ hungry sure ain’t good for concentration.”

“We don’t… have to eat?” Star asked.

“Naw. But you’ll probably feel better if you do.”

“Can we have food for our friends waiting outside?” Neku asked. “We have a friend who can’t enter your shop.”

“Wearin’ a horse mask, I take it? Buggers cursed themselves, s’not my problem. I’ll send you with a box for everyone. Just don’t litter, you hear?”

* * *

Neku carried the massive bento box in his lap outside, to Momo and Ace waiting on the wooden entryway.

“Don’t worry, I heard everything,” Momo said. “And I smell eel in there. That’s mine.”

“You said I, not we,” Moon remarked.

“Not entering shops extends to not hearing, either,” Ace said. “At least Momo could tell me what you all were chatting about.”

Neku nodded, passing Momo some chopsticks. “Momo, should I put your portion in the lid, so you have your own plate?” Star asked her.

“Yeah, sure, whatever.”

“So,” Ace said. “We’re going to convince the dragon to nest somewhere else? Is that what we decided?”

“Some other group’s already working on reviving him,” Star said, shoving a lotus root in her mouth. “Oh, this is amazing.”

“Yeah, you were too far from the door for a bit,” Momo admitted as the box lid was placed in her lap. “Did our Alexa already have some quests marked off?”

“Yeah. Here, unfortunately this bit isn’t said aloud, but there’s a set of five colored symbols as a check mark next to some things other groups already did. The symbols are the animals, the colors their element. Looks like one of the groups already split in half, because “get holy water” only has two animals marked next to it.” Star let her scroll float over the giant bento box so everyone could see it and asked it to read the contents aloud for Momo.

“The monks did say we don’t need to stay together,” Ace said. “If it makes sense for us to split off for a while, I’m okay with that. But I’d prefer if we all were a group unless we had to separate.”

“Yeah,” Star said with a nod. “I’m literally useless against the shikigami on my own.”

“I can fight, but I can’t aim,” Momo said. “One of those stupid frogs tried to jump us and I got some target practice, though.”

“What’s our remaining time?” Neku asked the air.

“One hour and twenty-seven minutes,” his scroll answered.

“The hourglass does look half empty,” Ace remarked. “But it’s nice to know we can get an exact time.”

 ** _It’s nice to not have something burned in my hand_** , Neku thought.

“What’s the point of all this, though?” Momo asked. “Why put us through it? Are they just going to give everyone their life back, at the end? Or are we all just fighting for nothing? I feel like I’m in a theme park, it feels… staged.”

The other three looked up expectantly at Neku. “I... can’t say anything for **_here_** ,” Neku admitted, choosing his words after swallowing. “But in my last game, no, not everyone survived. It was a test. Some people were gone forever. I got re-rev-brought back to life, and others did too. But not everyone. We didn’t get to pick what we paid to play, either. The game masters decided for us.”

“What did you lose?” Star asked.

“My memories of my life. But they took away the game explanation too. I didn’t even know I was dead the first few days. My partner basically carried **_me_**. So, Moon, I know how you feel. At least you’ve got your sister with you.”

Moon looked sadly at Star. “I wish I knew why we died. Or why I picked to lose my memory.”

Star squeezed her free hand. “It’s… not important, I promise.”

“The animal people may be acting, but the danger’s still real. Those shikigami actually come from bad emotions and they **_will_** rip you apart,” Neku added quietly. “If you’re not careful, you will die. Well, die **_more_** I guess.”

“Sakura-chan?” Of all the people to reach out and try and console, it was Momo. She fumbled a moment, almost slapping Neku’s face, as she reached out and stroked his hair. “None of us are going to be shikigami food. I promise.”

Neku put his own hand over hers, surprised by how small his was. He squeezed it and guided her hand down to an armrest.

“I don’t want to see that again.”

“You won’t,” Ace said, determined. “Now let’s go over what other groups have done and see what we can do, too.”

* * *

Neku and the group spent the next hour and a half filling in their map, finding a shop that traded talismans, fought more shikigami ( ** _not_** Noise, even if they totally were, Neku reminded himself), and managed to convince a few of the yokai (Reapers) into helping them coax the dragon to move once the other groups got it to wake up.

Their scrolls chimed collectively. “Five minutes until time.”

“Let’s stop here, then,” Ace suggested. “Go over what we know and plan our attack for tomorrow.”

“We should aim for the city center,” Moon suggested, looking at her scroll’s map. “There’s a ton of X’s marked on it. I’m guessing that’s where most of the stuff is. There’s not much out here except the shrine and that pub.”

“Didn’t the talisman shop owner say the coffee shop sells really odd magic we can’t get elsewhere? Might be worth the look,” Star piped. “I might even be able to use it?”

Neku snorted. There wasn’t a question of what that coffee shop was. “Okay,” he agreed. “There’s a really really big X on my map right near it. Maybe that’s the castle?”

“They did say it was downtown.”

Neku mentally pictured what giant building was that way. There weren’t any large castles in downtown Hachioji like there were in Kyoto or Osaka or the like; Hachioji’s castle was in ruins in a park in the western part of the ward. The only building that massive was the JR and Keio train station. And it was a sleek modern glass and metal thing, not the dilapidated but ominous building described by the few Reap- ** _yokai_** \- they’d met.

For that matter, they hadn’t seen any roads or cars or people at all. To be fair, they were walking with a blind person and someone else in a wheelchair. If they’d been dumped in one of the larger city parks, and at what Neku assumed was really only 8 or 9 am in a Sunday by Joshua’s earlier complaint, well, they wouldn’t be running into many people at all.

The ever-present fog certainly wasn’t helping. It was almost choking; how desolate it made the world. Neku couldn’t see or hear more than three or four meters in any direction. Someone could be six meters away and he wouldn’t even know they were there.

It felt a bit like when he’d done Noise control in Hachioji the last month. The Noise planes in Shibuya and Shinjuku were gated by hard glass-like barriers once you entered them. Some Reapers even used pushing off of them as part of their fighting styles. But when Neku fought Noise in Hachioji, the edges of the planes had never been defined. Only a thick purple-white fog had surrounded him, blocking out the sun. He’d fight, and immediately eject himself back to the UG or RG. Four weeks of it and he was still a little unnerved by it.

The Reapers and Angels in charge of the district probably saw how their Noise planes operated and thought ‘ ** _hey this looks like a fun time, let’s use this idea!_** ’

“Sakura?”

“H-what?”

“What happens when the timer runs out?”

“If it’s like my last game, you’re put in stasis till the next day.”

“Wait- but Sakura, your fee was… not being able to sleep, right? Does that mean you’ll-”

Where the four of them once stood, four wooden charms on ribbons cracked to the ground.

* * *

Neku looked around. Nobody was present, as far as he could tell. A Reaper didn’t hop out of the bushes with a “surprise!”. At least, no Noise popped out either. Yet. But he’d have to fight them alone or find somewhere to hide. It was… what? Nine in the morning? Neku didn’t have a watch or a phone. Even if he did have one on his person, it would probably have been taken from him. None of the buildings they’d been in had clocks, and he couldn’t see the sun.

Carefully, he pulled the lever on his wheelchair and let himself tumble forward. It took some effort, pulling himself along the dirt and early fall leaves, but he managed to pick up the four souls of his companions. By the string, this time. He didn’t really have any desire to relive their deaths.

Carefully, he undid the knot on his obijime and slid the four charms into it, tying it shut the best he could. He wasn’t going to win any awards for kimono coordination, but it would do.

Carefully, he pulled himself back into his chair, adjusted himself, still with an uncomfortable squelch on the seat from what he now knew was dragon spit. Or something resembling it. Neku sighed, pulled his scroll to his lap, and planned his next move. He might as well try to get them downtown for when his group woke up tomorrow. If there was anywhere that was safe, it was Hanekoma’s shop. He hoped.

* * *

Thirty minutes of rolling in circles, and Neku finally found a way off the dirt and onto what looked like a road. **_The_** road, the one with the parking lot and construction and a FamilyMart on the corner by the entrance to the Reaper’s un-space, Neku slowly realized.

So, he was in Tangi, then. He did a lazy lap around the road, not worried about vehicles. After a minute or two, one did make its way into Neku’s vision, and he finally got a chance to see people.

Or something people adjacent.

The car was old, rusted, missing a door. There was a driver and someone in the back passenger seat, and neither of them had faces.

Just a plain white disc where a face should be. The car pulled up into the lot Neku was in, and even though he knew the car couldn’t hit him, he rolled out of the space as they pulled in.

The person- a woman by build and clothes, got the passenger out of the back. A child. The child had a bid of vivid yellow color attached to the back of its neck, and the woman had an entire spider beast clamoring around her, spitting acid at Neku once it noticed him.

Neku wheeled back, horrified.

And then got a closer look at the convenience store. It was a FanilyMart… once, he supposed. The lights inside flickered at odd intervals, the shelves looked nearly bare, and what food was there looked moldy and worn away. Someone stood behind the counter.

And then Neku noticed the silence. Other than the hum of the neon sign in the window, no music, no jingling bell, no chatter. The woman put her cell phone to her ear, but no sound came out, even as she nodded and gripped the hand of her faceless child.

Neku listened to the burning neon for another moment, looked forlornly at the curb he knew he couldn’t pull his chair over, and sighed. **_Post apocalyptic_** and **_eerie_** were two ways to describe it. Neku booked it away from the half-dead shop and made his way for the station.

There wasn’t much to see, most of the way. It has already been an hour, but Neku was fairly sure he was only halfway to downtown. His arms were killing him, and his stomach was crying mercy again.

The place was an abandoned, silent hellscape. Occasionally, another half-destroyed jalopy came into view, disappearing just as fast into the fog. Neku got run through once or twice on the highway when he decided to roll in the middle of the road instead of the narrow, sloping embarkment on the side. The last thing he wanted to do was fall in a ditch and have to drag himself out.

His arms still hurt.

Neku took a break, massaging his hands, wrists, and shoulders. He really needed some gloves; his palms were getting raw. He used his healing magic, which did wonders to clear up the rope burn, but the ache remained.

“Now, now, what’s all this?”

Neku flung his upper body towards the sound of the voice. A boar woman in field clothes walked through the gloom, a large reed pack tied to her back. She stopped and put the pack down. “Monkeys should be sleepin’ right n- wait. You’re not a Monkey. You’re a Ram. What’s a little stray sheep doing in a wheelchair?”

“I didn’t want to be Monkey just because my legs don’t work,” Neku claimed defiantly.

“Chil’, I’m going to have a word or two with whoever had you trade power for a fee.”

“No!” Neku said a little too loudly before embarrassing himself. “She already made it clear I could’ve been Monkey. This was my idea.”

“Then, pray tell, what are you doing on the highway? Ain’t nothing but Faded out here.”

“I… saw.”

“If I were you, I’d be hunkering down somewhere right about now.”

“I know. My group wanted to go to the city center for tomorrow’s game, so I thought I’d wheel myself there. Save an hour tomorrow.”

“Hun, look at you. You’re dirty, exhausted, and alone. And all the shops close after hours. You go to that city and you’ll just be overrun. The Faded are there, lots of ‘em. And I hope someone told you what those Faded make.”

“Monsters, I know.”

“Babe, you keep wheelin’ your lonesome out that way and you’ll stop existin’.”

“Are you going to stop me?” Neku asked, fire in his eyes. His stomach growled loudly. He’d only eaten two or three hours prior, but being regular dead seemed to send his stomach to overdrive.

The boar-woman twitched, almost as if she were trying to not laugh. “I won’t. Heaven knows you mortals get creative when you think you’re gonna be in danger. But I am gonna go contact some friends. Stay a moment. I’mma go call on the cavalry.”

* * *

The boar lady stepped back from the fog into Neku’s view. “I have a choice for you, little lady. I’ll either let you back to whatever you were doing, well, after I offer you my wares, I have a few things in my pack here for trade if you have talismans.”

“Or?”

“Or you come with me and my friends back to a safe house until tomorrow. We don’t normally let humans like you into our homes, mind, but my sisters have agreed to make an exception for you. You look like you could use a hot meal and a bath. **_Especially_** the bath. Did you roll around in **_leaves_**? You’re not kashiwa mochi.”

This elicited a giggle from Neku. “Close. I’m Sakura.”

“Sakura Mochi, huh? At least Sakura leaves are edible.”

“I’ve already been eaten once today,” Neku sighed out.

“And **_smell_** like it,” Boar-Lady muttered.

“Is it that bad?”

“ ** _Horrific_** ,” she said, grinning with her sharp tusks. “Ah. Our carriage awaits.”

A half-destroyed rusted car screeched to a halt in front of them and a crane in a fancy kimono trotted out. “Here’s our little masochist, huh?” She fluffed up Neku’s hair and puffed a laugh of air. “Okay, I’m going to slide you in the backseat, mind the seatbelt.”

The crane bent over Neku, feathers scratching his cheek, pulled the lever and then a second one to drop a latch on the side, taking the entire armrest with it. She lined the chair up with the backseat and shoved Neku gently in it. “Buckle up, I’m putting your chair in the trunk.”

Despite the car being run down and destroyed, the seatbelt seemed firm and clicked shut neatly. Neku winced at the slam of the trunk, and the boar and crane stuffed themselves in the front seats to drive… somewhere. Neku couldn’t see much, but occasionally they passed a house close enough to the road that he could see just how destroyed it was. Eventually, they pulled around to a large, old mansion. Neku looked down at his map. He was still in Hachioji; the district was gigantic after all. Hachioji was geographically the size of at least half the special wards downtown like Shinjuku and Shibuya combined, with far less people.

“I never asked you your names,” Neku admitted as the stork parked her car.

“Yumi,” the bird replied pleasantly. “Let me get your chair, now. Sayuri, get the door and let our siblings know we have a human visitor.”

The boar nodded, and Neku hollered from the car window. “Thanks, Miss Sayuri!”

“Jus’ Sayuri, child,” she yelled back with a tusk-framed smile.

“One… two!” Yumi said, shifting Neku into his chair. “You’ll get an indoor one inside. This thing needs a cleaning anyway. **_Eeeesh_**.”

“I fell in dragon spit and then sat back in my chair,” Neku admitted.

“Bath too, then. I’ll make sure someone can help you- unless you know how to use a handicapped bath yourself?”

Neku turned red. “I can… I **_can’t_**. Someone **_is_** going to need to help. I feel like a **_little_** -little kid.”

“Come on then, up the ramp. Sayuri says your name was…”

Yumi paused and Neku felt the little mental tap. If he were a normal Player he wouldn’t notice, but he quietly retaliated, letting her peek at Sakura’s memories instead. She was powerful enough to Scan a player, and Neku would keep that in mind, at least.

“…Sakura, yes.” She smiled gently. “I knew it was a tree.”

Neku wheeled himself up the ramp and onto the property proper.

* * *

Sayuri waited for him inside with a wheelchair on stubby bamboo skis on the tatami, towel on the seat. With a little effort, Neku shifted himself from one to the other, while Yumi left her shoes at the entryway. Neku counted about twenty pairs, but sixty cubby-holes.

Well, he **_did_** promise the Reapers he’d stay in the dorms.

* * *

Neku rolled himself into what looked like a main lounge area, Sayuri on his (w)heels. Nine Reapers sat in the room, one doing another’s nails, three reading quietly. Three more were ticking on their phones, and the last was sitting in the corner of the room, a deer with a gorgeous set of full antlers, staring at a TV hissing with white noise, displaying only static.

The deer turned around first, haloed by the blacks, whites, and greys of the program-less television, eyes solid black.

“Hello!” he said cheerfully. “Sorry about the mess. Sunday’s always stupid.”

Whatever fear Neku had evaporated in a moment. God, this UG was creepy.

Neku heard creaking metal, following it with his eyes to an open elevator shaft in the back corner of the massive open room. It was one of those old-style pulley things he’d seen in traditional inns, less an elevator and more a dumbwaiter for people.

“First floor’s the lounge. Second is kitchen and dining. Third is bath and quiet space. Fourth is sleeping. We jus’ ask you not go on the fourth floor. We all have diff’rent schedules. When we want sleep, we want it quiet.”

Neku nodded. “Other than that, you’re free to explore. There’s a garden out back. Once Taka’s done power washin’ your chair, it’ll be at the entrance, by the shoes. Honestly, though, bath first. For **_all_** our sakes.”

Neku sighed. He knew that was coming sooner than later. Being babied sucked.

Sayuri waved him to get in the lift. “I have work to do, but I’m sure some-”

“Sakura!” Neku’s back stiffened until he noticed Hana wave at him. She still wore the eyepatch, but was in sweatpants and a loose track jacket, her Reaper wings fully visible without the heavy layer of kimono hiding them. It didn’t match the traditional décor at all.

She was still a human sized bird of prey though. Neku almost expected those off duty to look human.

Maybe he had it backwards and all the Reapers looked like this for real? Was the human thing just a costume when they needed to appear in front of the living?

“What happened to you?” she continued, bubbly. “You look like you rolled through a pile of leaves. And you smell like a dumpster.”

“Don’t ask,” Neku sighed.

“I was just going out for a fly, but whatever. Come on up. I’ll help.”

“Sure you have this, Hana?” Sayuri looked at her sideways.

“Yeah, yeah! Sakura was my charge this morning.” she said, smiling. “You’ve got mortals to go pester, don’t you?”

“Oof, yes. My shop won’t run itself.” Sayuri pulled out a scroll like the one Neku had, with five ram symbols marked on it, four of them moving slowly on the map. “Stray sheep on the first day need ‘n extra-friendly face. I’ll be off to switch with Daisuke later.”

The boar woman jumped back to the entryway, sliding on geta and her giant basket-weave backpack, waved, and vanished into the fog outside the door.

“Sorry if I was interrupting anything,” Neku muttered.

“Aww, no. Forecast said rain, anyway. I like flying in a thunderstorm but regular old rain’s not much fun.”

“You sound totally different,” Neku commented, as he backed into the lift and the pulley started.

“I’m off the clock. I can only stand so many thee’s and thou’s in a day.”

Neku laughed a little at that. “You sure you’re okay showing me a backstage tour?”

“We don’t let mortals in our homes often, but you’re not the first,” Hana said. Neku couldn’t tell if she was smiling, but there was warmth in her voice. “Stray sheep who meet certain criteria aren’t left alone outside. It’s too dangerous. And we keep eyes on the rest. Subtly or less so.”

“What, because of this?” Neku asked, rapping his armrest.

“Nope. But you do meet both of the two criteria we do use.” They exited the elevator and Hana guided him to the baths. “You’re a kid, and you’ve died before.”

* * *

“Tell me if it’s too hot.”

“It’s… fine. I’m just surprised you have a handicapped stall.”

“We have a few yokai who need it.” Quietly, she leaned close and whispered. “Dying doesn’t necessarily suddenly give you eyesight or hearing or working legs. Disabled doesn’t mean **_broken_**.” Hana tapped her own eyepatch. “I didn’t have an eye before I died, I don’t now. Didn’t change anything, really.”

“You adapt.”

“Mhmm.”

Neku resigned himself to letting Hana wash him in silence.

“Do you want to get your hair? I’ll get shampoo.”

Neku sighed and gave Hana a little mental tap before using telepathy. **_I’ve never had long hair before. I could use the help._**

Hana just nodded.

 ** _You can speak telepathically back to me, if you want. My mind reading is bound_**.

 ** _Ah_** , she said, her voice rattling around in Neku’s head. **_I assumed you were poking around._**

 ** _I wouldn’t without asking anyway. Yumi tried though. She just got Sakura’s memories_**.

**_Saku… are you playing possessing her? She’s real?_ **

**_No and yes. She’ll be in the next game. I just read her mind and took her place. I didn’t bind my telepathy or my ability to prevent others from reading my mind. Don’t want the Reapers cheating, now._ **

Hana laughed out loud as she slowly worked the shampoo into Neku’s long black hair, trying to prevent tangles. **_Who’s cheating? You said you’d be a Reaper._**

 ** _And what is a Player but a reaper-to-be? I said from the Conductor down to the newest one._** Neku grinned toothily, a bit embarrassed that getting his hair washed felt as good as it did. After the past few hours, he felt like he needed it. And a nap.

“Miss Hana, ma’am,” he said our loud, just to see her squirm a little. “Does being a Ram mean I can’t sleep at all? I’m exhausted and my arms hurt.”

“You can fall asleep, if you need a nap. You just don’t get to skip time by stasis.”

“What time is it, exactly? There weren’t clocks anywhere.”

Hana went silent. Neku was fairly sure this was not supposed to be player information. “Just after noon. You have about 24 hours or so before the next Game day starts.”

“Isn’t making five people play all this extra time a bit… much?”

“We have a few bunkhouses scattered around. And people like Sayuri keep an eye on them and intervene if needed.”

“Isn’t it unfair?”

“The people picking Boar or Horse thought it would be easy, too, you know. We make the things that seem the hardest the most manageable, and the things that seem easy are quite difficult indeed. We aren’t trying to kill anyone, either, but it happens. Usually player hubris. Only groups that work smartly, together, actually do well. Rams also get extra time to get things done if they wish, or rest and reflect. Everyone else has to rush on limited time.”

“Why are so many physical disabilities?”

“Have you seen how Japan handles the disabled?” Hana sighed, running the showerhead over Neku. “Give some of those high and mighty a taste of their ableism puts things in perspective.”

“Lots of perspective, those Monkeys had for me,” Neku grumbled.

“And how easily did they find groups?”

Neku shrugged. “Don’t care. Wasn’t paying them any attention.”

“Like your group?”

“They’re nice. Well, Momo’s a bit of a jerk.”

“There’s another thing about Rams, you know.”

“Hm?”

“Those wooden charms are your soul in stasis. If you touch them, you can find out quite a bit about them.”

 ** _I’m aware. I did it by accident to Sakura. That’s why I’m her._** Out loud, Neku sighed. “Touching them lets me see their memories. I don’t wanna. Picked them up by the ribbons instead.”

**_You have all this power, and you don’t abuse it?_ **

**_I was human once, Hana. I’ve been on the receiving end enough._ **

* * *

Neku got a fresh kimono, lunch, and a futon in a corner of the quiet room to plonk down in.

He was out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

“Hana?” She whipped around, to see Sayuri in the doorway, changed out of her farmhand’s attire to a tee and sweatpants. “Kiddo’s asleep?”

“Dead to the world,” Hanna chuckled at her own joke. “But you know Players. They can sleep ‘till we wake them for the next day, or they can be up and wired in thirty minutes.”

“Mhmm. You’ve been tracking her case file, right?”

“Already updated with her info. Her leg numbness is definitely psychosomatic. I’ll have the healer look at her in the morning before Monday’s game starts officially, though. I’m curious about Chiyoda’s game. Would be kinda fun to see that for a bit.”

“Not my idea of fun, videogames,” Sayuri grumbled. “I’m a few too many centuries out of date for that.”

“Old hag.”

“You’re no spring chicken, yourself, Hana. Oh, before I forget, a present for you.” Sayuri fished something out of her pocket, dropping it discreetly into Hana’s hand-feathers. “Well?”

“Well what?” Hana asked, rubbing Sayuri’s token before putting it in a pocket.

“Am I right?”

“You’ll find out at the end of the week, won’t you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're curious, here's the reference sheet on powers and fees I made for myself to keep them organized.
> 
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-c24f0Iu77Y0mcuXG-2VwiyUNAT7MdFqfNtS_DnNwOY/edit?usp=sharing


	4. Three Coffees, To Go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!!!!! Please welcome my awesome beta, JuncoBirds!! They'll be helping out from now on. I may go back and clean up chapters 1-3 as well, especially since I have some art pieces to load in too!
> 
> Yes I upped the chapter count. I may break it to 10, even. Whole fic is plotted, but chapters are a lot longer than expected.

The time: 6:22 AM, Monday, the first day of October

The place: Vanitas’s sleeping quarters in the angel’s luxury apartment in downtown Shibuya.

The offense: One (1) high velocity buckwheat pellet pillow thrown out of Joshua’s left hand towards Vanitas as a means to wake him.

The result: Joshua, frowning, with an untold number of buckwheat pellets stuck in the crevices of his feathers, Flood hissing at the foot of Vanitas’s futon as his master slowly disentangled himself from his blankets, prickly as a cactus.

Vanitas growled low, assessing the scene. Flood gripped Vanitas’s feet with his hindlegs, a bit of his fangs visible in the low light.

“You slept through two of your alarms. It was the pillow, or my hand,” Joshua admitted quietly. “And I know you well enough now that I can lose it.” He rubbed at a wrist. “Just because I can grow it back doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt like hell. How’s your score?”

Vanitas and Joshua had developed a system to assess Vanitas’s spiking mood swings. A zero was full blown panic attack, so bad Vanitas himself couldn’t articulate it, a ten was nothing wrong. Joshua had just been elated when Vanitas proudly reported a seven on Saturday.

Vanitas thought a moment. “Three, maybe a four.”

“I can get Neku’s mother to call him out sick. I’d go myself but I’m still helping Uri with Shinjuku for two more weeks.”

“I’ll be okay in a few,” Vanitas hissed out. “I knew this was going to be early, but…”

“Imprint?”

Vanitas rubbed the crust from his eyes. “No. Give me something to do.”

Vanitas had taken up a few mindless tasks around the apartment, embroidery, crochet, pressing pins for the Game. Something simple, mindless, and repetitive helped when he was at his worst.

Joshua sighed, and poured every ounce of love he had for his district into his wings, before squatting down next to Vanitas, stretching one out to him. Joshua didn’t let a single feather touch Vanitas, anything below a five was a very strong warning against initiating contact.

But Vanitas could reach for **_him_** if he felt comfortable doing so.

“Fix the things you break,” Joshua ordered.

Like a pianist about to begin a recital, Vanitas lifted his hands to Joshua’s wing, feathers stuck everywhere with brown buckwheat pellets. He sighed, and slowly began to comb through the mess. After ten minutes of silence and methodical preening, Vanitas finally met Joshua’s practiced faux disinterested gaze. “Five.”

Joshua twisted his wing, still with a few pellets stuck in that he could shake out himself when flying and opened his arms a little. Vanitas pulled him in, as if clinging to a raft in a storm. Slowly, Joshua pulled his arms around him, rubbing gently on the space between Vanitas’s wing blades with one hand, and mussing his hair with the other.

“Too good to me,” Vanitas mumbled into Joshua’s black hoodie.

“You can pay me back later with a manicure. My cuticles look horrific,” Joshua teased.

Flood bit Joshua on the thigh, hard enough to be a surprise, but not hard enough to do any actual damage. “That’s a yes, then, dear? Now, come on, Gabe’s got breakfast waiting, and you need to get dressed. Hang on a moment, and…”

Joshua ran his fingers through Vanitas’s hair. “Try putting yourself completely on the Realground and see how it looks. You won’t be fooling most of the Reapers, but you’ll pass muster at school. I can spike up your hair for you so someone doesn’t clip through the illusion.”

“Yeah, sure, thanks,” Vanitas said, unlocking his phone to look at his reflection. It looked the same. Joshua snuck around and pressed the camera button, then showed him the photo taken.

Neku’s and a bit of Joshua’s face stared back up at him. Well, Neku-ish.

Joshua laughed. “Oopsie. Gabe’ll fix that.”

“You really **_can’t_** do faces, can you?”

* * *

Gabriel couldn’t help but laugh a little. “You look ridiculous.”

“I know, can you fix it?” Vanitas sighed.

“I meant… seeing you in a school uniform, oh dear God, **_Josh_**. E for effort.” Gabriel laughed, before going deadly serious. “Can I?”

“Yeah.”

Gabriel licked her pointer finger and swiped it across his face a few times, like she were a mother cleaning dirt off her son’s face. “Much better. Hang on.”

Gabriel inhaled, and on her exhale, her wings were gone. “Oof, I hate going full RG,” she whined. “Stand?”

Vanitas stood, and she peered around him. “Say something.”

“Say something?”

“Not funny, Vanitas. More than a few grunts, please, I’m listening.”

“Say something about what? Are you testing the voice?”

“See, now that’s something Josh does way better than me or Uri,” Gabriel admitted, as her wings reappeared. “Also, I don’t enjoy breathing. It sucks.”

“And blows,” Joshua added, good naturedly, as he sat, dropping buckwheat pellets all over the kitchen floor.

“You’re not going anywhere until you vacuum, mister,” Gabriel chided, smacking Joshua upside the head.

“I had to wake him **_somehow_**!”

“Save it for the judge,” Gabriel grinned as she dumped a tray of onigiri between them.

“I **_am_** the judge!” Joshua reminded her.

“Jury and executioner,” Vanitas added.

* * *

“Got everything, **_Neku_**?” Gabriel asked, giving Vanitas a once over. Joshua had already left with the Komaeda twins and Uriel, leaving Gabriel to play mom as Vanitas left for class.

“Think so.”

“Pocket money?”

“Are you giving me some?” he asked slyly. Gabriel dropped a crisp 5,000-yen bill in his hand.

“Eh, why not. Have fun with the kids after class. Let me know if you’ll be home for dinner. Neku gets free lunch in the school cafeteria, but if you don’t like the choices, let me know. I can send you with a sack lunch.”

“I’m sure anything you make is better than school food.”

“I dunno, it’s a fancy private art school. They even have a rooftop garden. Can’t compete with fresh veg. You know the way?”

“I’ve passed it enough on patrol,” Vanitas groaned. “Flood, in my shadow and **_stay there_**.”

Flood whimpered, but obligingly disappeared, giving Vanitas his shadow back. It soundly gave him the middle finger. “Flood, **_stay_** unless I tell you to come out,” Vanitas sighed. “I’ll… ugh… I’ll get you a slice of cheesecake tonight if you behave.”

His shadow stilled. Vanitas moved an arm, watching as it copied him, no extra trickery from the roiling sea of emotions held within.

“You sure you’re up to this?” Gabriel asked.

“I need the social practice. Eri and Shiki are there, and I can call one of you if it gets too much.”

Gabriel shook her head. “Text Mrs. Sakuraba. She’ll bail you out. I sent you her number already.”

Vanitas nodded. “Well, I’m off, then.”

* * *

“Neku!”

Vanitas had about a half second to react before the girl wrapped her arms around his right arm, dragging him down from the sudden weight.

Vanitas’s shadow boiled, and he took a step back to plant a loafer on an Unversed’s head before it burst through to reality. Living people could see them, after all.

Shiki shrieked and took a step back. “Neku, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to scare.”

“Not. Neku,” Vanitas said, grinding teeth, practicing his breathing like Joshua had taught him. After his heart rate slowed, he started over. “He didn’t say anything, then?”

“ ** _Joshua_**?” Shiki asked, confused. “I thought Neku was only busy Wednesday night.”

“No, and no. Try again.” Vanitas pointed down towards his feet.

“Oh. My. Gosh. I am so, so sorry, Vanitas!” Shiki hissed. “But… uh?” she flailed her hands back and forth.

“Neku’s dealing with something in Hachioji’s UG. I’m just covering his ass in class. Do you… normally walk to school latched on like a remora?”

Shiki turned a little pink. “Yeah, a bit. I’m just… I know I’m not going to lose him again but…”

Vanitas reached out and took her hand in his. “Well? Let’s not make a scene then. Bets on how long until Eri notices?”

Shiki giggled a little. “I don’t know, you’re just as grumpy as Neku.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Vanitas replied, giving Shiki’s hand a squeeze to ground himself.

* * *

Neku woke up, dazed. It took him a moment to remember that 1. he wasn’t in his own bed 2. he didn’t have to fluff up and shake out his wings like he was airing a rug and 3. He couldn’t use his legs. He had feeling in them this morning at least, though it felt like a million pins and needles.

The familiar empty stomach grumblings were the same, though. Slowly, Neku worked his way through stretching and popping out his spine, before clambering up into his chair to head down for food.

“Mornin’ little one.” Neku rubbed the crust from his eyes and looked up at Sayuri, who had her hands in three different pots and several more stirring on their own. A snow monkey with white fur and a vividly pink face was kneading dough, and gave Neku a quick glance and a smile. An odd creature with a single elk-horn facing forward and a combination of soft brown fur and hard green scales sauntered in, raiding the fridge at the far end of the extremely modern looking industrial space.

“Hands off, Taka,” Sayuri grumped at it. “You know the rules. Kitchen hands only unless you want to lose one. Now, get something from the grab ‘n go or wait till we are out of here. Unless you want to get on kitchen duty this week?”

“Last thing I wanna do is poison someone,” Taka grumped. “Any salmon nigiri I can grab before shift?”

“Mister Taka, uh…” Neku started, looking at the unrecognizable creature. “What are you? Also, I heard you cleaned my chair yesterday, so thanks.”

Taka laughed and mussed up Neku’s hair. “Kirin. And no problem kiddo, now let’s get out of here before Princess Tusk gores us. Hey, the coffee’s out.”

The monkey sighed and left their post. “On it. Lord knows Taka needs his coffee. How’s the creamer looking?”

“Full but the sugar pot’s empty,” Neku yelled back helpfully.

“Thanks, child.”

“Sakura-chan, any breakfast requests?”

“I’m usually running to school with an onigiri in the morning,” Neku said, embarrassed. “I’m not picky.”

“If you’re hungry now, there’s a minifridge next to the coffee pot,” the monkey added. “Otherwise, you either help, or wait.”

“I can help,” Neku offered.

“Now, that’s what I like to hear. Come back in the kitchen. Taka, stay out.”

“Kogoro, you’re a horrible man.”

“Ditto to you, Taka, now **_get_**.”

* * *

After an hour of folding croissants, inhaling breakfast, and getting head patted, elbowed, and hugged by two dozen Reapers, Neku just wanted a little time to himself before he’d get dragged into the next day’s game. His hourglass was slowly filling back up, its sand rising upwards against gravity in an ominous reminder that he’d soon need to head back into the real world.

His shoulders still hurt.

“Sakura-chan?”

Neku looked up from his tableau of hanafuda, lowering his hands of cards on the table. Hana, rubbing at a shoulder, loomed over him with a kirin carrying a first-aid kit.

“Hm?”

“Today’s game will start in about three hours. I was wondering if one of our healers, Doctor Ishida, could have a look at your legs. They weren’t your fee; she might be able to fix them.”

“Aw, come on,” whined the old sow Neku was playing against. “I was about to wipe her clean.”

“Jin, what’d we say about gambling with minors?” Hana asked with a little laugh.

Neku sighed and threw his cards up on the table. “I finally was going to get moon-viewing, too.”

* * *

“How’s it feel?” Ishida lifted one of Neku’s feet, curling it in her hand. Hana had cordoned off a part of the quiet room upstairs with sliding doors, placing a silencing spell on the space so they could work in privacy.

“Pins and needles today,” Neku admitted.

“How high does that feeling go?”

“About here,” Neku said, pointing to his hips. “If I press really hard, I can feel it at this point, but below, nothing.”

“And above, it’s like normal?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmph,” Ishida muttered. “Well, I know **_what_** happened, but the question is how and why. Sakura, may I read your mind? You might have repressed something.”

“Will it fix my legs?” Neku asked, already working to bring Sakura’s memories up to the surface while safeguarding his own.

“I can’t promise that. I may have to take you to someone else to get them fixed. Hoo, if I could find our Composer right now,” she added, muttering. “Child, you were cursed something awful. I know I’ve smelled this magic before, it’s strong stuff. He’d be able to break it but he’s off playing hide-n-seek.”

“C- ** _cursed_**?” Neku asked, genuinely shocked.

Hana looked worried. “She was cursed? What’s it smell like?”

Ishida rubbed her snout. “Like an empty tatami room gathering dust. Not Hanekoma. Not the new guy, either. I got a good whiff on Friday. I’ve smelled this on our new blood for the past two months since Zeke left. I don’t know if Hanekoma can break something this strong.”

 ** _Haniel_**.

“Okay, Sakura. I’m going to take a peek now,” Ishida added, addressing Neku as she placed a hand on his forehead, rubbing gently. “Close your eyes and try to remember the night you died.”

Neku let his thoughts wander as Ishida looked at Sakura’s memories.

After a few moments, Ishida lifted her hand away. “ ** _Shit_**. Child, I’ll be right back. Hana, with me, please?”

“Wait.” Neku said, frowning. It was going to get bad, fast, if that doctor was getting the wrong idea. “Have you spent your token yet? Because if not, I’ll take it.”

Ishida slowly craned her neck to look sideways at Neku, mental gears turning. “You little **_cheat_**.”

“Tell me what’s wrong, please,” Neku said authoritatively, as Ishida handed over her token. “This won’t count, Hana, its an emergency. Counts for you, though, ma’am. I have a separate wager with Hana here.”

Ishida raised a golden furred eyebrow at Hana, then relaxed in her stool facing Neku. “First, explain yourself.”

Neku quickly told the doctor what he’d done, and how he was hiding among them.

“And you can hide as a Player because you don’t have your own scent yet- smart,” Ishida said with a nod. “How are you finding the Game?”

“ ** _Different_** ,” Neku admitted. “Not bad-different, though. So, what did you see?”

“Sakura was hit by a vehicle over by Soka University, quite a mess,” Ishida admitted. “It’s what happened **_after_** that concerns me. Her soul was collected by what felt like phoenix Noise. Sat like that for a few days. Then picked up by a Monkey noise, and dropped, slightly chipping the soul. The phoenix picked it up and repaired it but added a curse in the process. That’s what I’m seeing now. It’s odd, normally such black magick has ill intent. This was deliberate, yes, but… it didn’t seem **_vindictive_**.”

“And the phoenix smelled of old tatami?” Neku asked.

“Mhm.”

“The monkey?”

“No smell at all. Must have been a minor Noise that snatched the soul away.”

“The monkey is **_me_** ,” Neku admitted. “Bluish-purple and yellow, yeah? That’s my Noise.”

Ishida looked at him, wide-eyed in shock. “Then you know what the Phoenix is?”

“Yeah,” Neku admitted. “Another angel. They’ve been filling in for your former Composer until I take over those jobs. I’m not too concerned, I trust them.” Neku rubbed his knee, still without feeling. He wasn’t so sure on trusting Haniel, per se, but someone he **_did_** trust was Gabriel, and if she put faith in the ice queen, he would too.

Haniel was doing this for a reason, and as long as it wasn’t malicious, Neku was willing to let it go. He’d let angels do worse to him, after all.

 ** _Joshua_**.

Neku rolled a sore shoulder. “Annoying, though. I think they were trying to tell me what powers to take.”

“ ** _Monkey_** ,” Hana and Ishida said in unison. “That little bastard,” Hana added. “I’ll keep it as psychosomatic on file.”

Ishida nodded. “Do you need me for anything else, then? I’m guessing you’re unwilling to break the curse yourself.”

“Yeah, I think I could, but I’d unbind all my magic and ruin everything I’m trying to do. Could use a few ice packs, though. My arms are killing me.”

“Why don’t I show you a few stretches?” Ishida asked. “You have some time.”

* * *

“So, who knows?” Ishida asked as Neku popped his spine again, feeling a little better. If they had any down time during the Game, he’d do the stretches again.

“Just you two,” Neku admitted. “And unless I have a reason, it’ll stay that way,” he added with a sly grin.

“If anything changes about that curse, like, say, extending up your torso, do yourself a favor and un-tether yourself from the Game,” Ishida chided. “We’ve already lost one good Conductor and I don’t want to lose another. Now, off you get, you crazy child. I don’t want to have to make another house call.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Come on, then,” Hana added. “I’ll drive you to the edge of the downtown district. Your group can start today from there.”

* * *

“Hana?”

“Yeah?”

“Why are all of you animals? Or yokai, whatever. I saw everyone on Friday and you all mostly looked human to me. I mean, some of you had masks and stuff but…”

Hana laughed. “Haven’t figured it out? Nobody’s told you?”

“No and… the world looks like it’s been… I don’t think destroyed is the right word, but it looks **_forgotten_**.”

“It’s pretty, in a rusted-out apocalyptic sort of way,” Hana admitted. “The other districts don’t have it?”

“The other ones I’ve seen, no. But every major habited area in the world has a UG, doesn’t it? I don’t expect them all to be like Shibuya’s or Shinjuku’s. Even the noise planes are…”

Neku froze, the first trick finally making sense. “ ** _Noise_**. That’s what’s going on here. We’re not in the **_UG_** in Hachioji’s game.”

“Bingo.”

“When I first saw all the fog I thought, wow, this looks like when I go onto a Noise plane to fight. But that’s **_exactly_** it. It explains everything- why I didn’t need a partner, why Noise will just randomly attack without drawing into those graffiti looking symbols. It even explains why I’ve only seen off-duty Reapers up till now and no players in the UG. Players are only on the Noise plane… and it’s so foggy that unless one was near me when fighting, I’d’ve missed them. And when I felt the world jolt and we couldn’t see the other groups… we were all shifted onto separate Noise planes weren’t we? The Reapers would be able to watch all of us, but we can’t see each other.”

“You’ve got most of it. You’re missing a key piece though. You **_do_** have a partner fighting the Noise.”

“Well, it’s not my teammates, can’t be, I could already use psychs before meeting them… it’s… oh. **_You’re_** my partner. Every player’s case worker is their partner. You can slip off to other Noise planes and fight if you need to double up with me.”

“Mhmm. I knew you weren’t feeling well,” Hana admitted, rubbing at her own shoulder. “God, your arms were really killing you, weren’t they? If you’re exhausted after today, a few of the Reapers in the dorms are rather good at massage. Bug Kitty. She’ll murder you until it’s better.”

Neku let out a laugh. “Thanks, Hana.”

Hana sighed; her voice dropped to flat seriousness. “Seriously, do it. If not for your sake, for mine.”

“So, you mad I’m a Ram? Sounds like a lot of extra work.”

“You kidding? I get double overtime and next game off for your stupidity.”

“Wait, so if we’re on a Noise plane, doesn’t that mean we can cheat and just… get out to the UG?”

“ ** _If_** you can find the exit, gotta leave where you came in,” Hana said, as she pulled over and parked in a space. “End of the line, kiddo. I’m letting you out here. Game starts in ten minutes. Do me a favor and wait until I disappear before you start moving. Noise is high here and I have a job to do.”

“Thanks, Hana. Does that mean my team’s four Reapers are nearby?”

“They’re hanging out just outside the car. Flew overhead as we drove.”

“I figured anything we said aloud would be overheard.”

“Not in the vehicle, no, but once I open this car door, it would be, **_Sakura_**. You ready?”

* * *

“So, **_Neku_** , how was morning class?”

Vanitas, Eri, and Shiki sat up on the rooftop’s patio garden, ignoring the brisk early October air just to get out in the sun for a break. Vanitas poked at his lunch, discreetly pulling the pork out of his stir fry and throwing it over a shoulder. It disappeared into his rippling shadow as if he were feeding a frenzy of koi.

“Not bad. I’ve done this before, a long time ago. Though there’s no magic on the schedule,” he said with a sly grin, looking at Eri, confusion on her face.

“A certain ginger had to bail Wednesday because he’s ‘out sick’ the whole week,” Shiki said, pointing chopsticks at Vanitas.

Vanitas patted the concrete under his feet and held out a large chunk of fried pork. His shadow began to thrash until some sharp teeth poked through the gloom, ripped the morsel from Vanitas’s hand, and disappeared back to stillness.

“Holy shit,” Eri said. “You’re a… one of those dead guys. I mean… Shiki and Neku explained it all, but… I’ve never seen magic before. Do I know you?”

“The one who works at Lapin Angelique with the fake fangs?” Vanitas helpfully suppled.

“Wait, **_Vanitas_**?!? You can shapeshift?”

“Nah, the Bosshole just put a spell on me. Did nobody tell you I was a Reaper?”

“You don’t wear their uniform, so, uh, no.”

“Well, I am. Wings and all. Could jump off the roof and scare some-”

“ ** _Don’t_**.” Shiki and Eri chided in unison. “Don’t even make that joke,” Shiki added, reaching out to bop his head but settled on smacking his shadow on the pavement instead.

“Sorry,” Vanitas said, head down to his lunch. “ been around them enough that gallows humor is pretty normal.”

“I’m used to it too,” Shiki said. “But time and place, **_ahem_** , Neku. Anyway… Neku has studio classes in the afternoon. You going to be okay there? Or does he have double lectures this week?”

“Double lectures, thank my sanity,” Vanitas sighed out. “The only weird comment I’ve gotten is that my penmanship is better than his is. He’s got a double block of English and I’m going to be bored out of my mind.”

“How come?” Eri asked.

“Gabriel taught me English the first week I was here.”

“This is high school English; it’s going to be more than ‘hello’ and ‘where’s the bathroom?’.”

“No, she taught me English. As In, all of it.”

Eri and Shiki just stared. “So uh, ‘ ** _Neku’_** ,” Shiki asked quietly. “How do I bribe a god?”

* * *

“Where are we?” Star asked, rubbing her eyes.

“Akatsuchiko, north of Hachioji’s Keio and JR stations. It’s about a kilometer walk from here. We’re on route 166,” Neku added. “Check your maps.”

Ace looked at Neku, a hint of doubt crossing his face. “How… do you know that?”

“Because Rams **_don’t sleep_** ,” Neku admitted. “You’ve all been in stasis about 24 hours. It’s a bit past noon on Monday.”

Moon hugged him. “You’ve been alone this whole time? Are you okay? Do you want one of us to carry you?”

“No, yes, no,” Neku said, quietly accepting the smothering until Moon calmed down.

“What happened?” Momo asked, leaning on her cane.

“When time was up, you all turned into wooden charms. Like the talismans, but square, so I couldn’t put them in my mask or in the scroll. So… I started following my map to go downtown. A traveling merchant boar lady stopped me and had me come back with her to where the yokai live. They fed me and gave me a shower, clean clothes, and a futon, and dropped me here for today. They said they don’t leave Rams that are kids out alone. But the other four were all adults, weren’t they?”

“I’d say that old man Monkey who yelled at you yesterday dodged a-” Ace started, as a small pack of wolf Noise ( ** _shikigami_** , Neku reminded himself, **_that’s what they’re called here_** ) tore out from the fog.

“Bullet,” Star finished for him, ducking behind Neku’s chair. “Momo, fire some. They’re straight ahead of you.”

“On it,” Momo said, charging her telekinetic bursts before sending them flying straight ahead. Two of the wolves went down without a fuss. Moon stepped forward, flinging a vine of sharp thorns from the pavement, cracking the asphalt as she went.

Of course she would, this was the Noise plane. Neku could fling cars around there all he liked and the ones in the UG or RG didn’t have a scratch. (Though he’d be the first to admit he did move a few cars around from the UG a few times, but he put them right back later).

He had to commend their Reaper partners. Sound was audible between the Noise planes. The five of them had to be bored out of their mind staying silent during the Game.

The last of the wolves vanished in a puff of smoke as their cores clicked on the pavement. “Water, all of these,” Ace said, scooping them up. “I’m keeping Water Horse unless Sakura wants it.”

“No, take it,” Neku insisted, holding out a cupped hand for the other psychs, slotting Boar in his mask and dumping the rest into his scroll for safekeeping.

“So, now,” Ace continued, looking over at Neku’s far more complete map. “Who’s up for some coffee?”

* * *

“This is insane,” Star whispered, gripping her sister’s arm tightly. “It’s like… the whole world stopped.”

“I really don’t like these Faded things,” Ace said, genuinely unnerved.

“What do they look like?” Momo asked, gripping Ace for mutual support.

“It’s everything,” Ace said, low. “The stores are flickering and half bare. The cars are rusted and missing doors, or windows, or roofs. The people all have white discs where the faces should be. They seem to have modern technology, cell phones and the like… but the screens are just…”

“Static,” Momo filled for him. “I can hear it. It’s like… a low hiss. And I noticed something. Everyone stinks.”

“Well, maybe we can ask one of the yokai to borrow a shower,” Ace said. “I’m no longer sticky from yesterday, at least.”

“I don’t mean like that. I mean like… I can smell magic. Sakura’s in particular smells nasty. And she got a shower.”

Neku stopped, to sniff his forearm. “I can’t smell anything weird.”

“It’s like a dust cloud,” Momo explained. “Like, I hear the clicking every time your wheels go over a piece of uneven pavement. Then the cloud follows you.”

Neku gulped. For the Reapers and Angels, the wings were a tangible extension of their Soul, their emotions and feelings and power.

And Momo could ‘see’ it. Not even the Reapers should be able to. Unless the cloud was their Reaper partners silently stalking them, and not his wings.

Neku sighed. He’d have plenty of time outside Game hours to figure more things out.

And probably get a massage, because yeah. His arms really were getting sore, fast.

* * *

“This is the place.”

“Least it looks like the Yokai shops from yesterday and not the rest of the street,” Moon noted aloud. “It’s bright and cheerful and hey! It’s got a concrete embarkment.”

Neku looked down. He’d never paid attention to it before, but the concrete in front of Mr. H’s shop did slope right up to the door, unlike the Yadobashi Camera next to it (creepy as hell with a million TVs tuned to static in the window display).

“I’ll stay outside with the idiot horse,” Momo offered. “But if you don’t come back with a latte and a pastry for me, I’ll be **_pissed_**.”

* * *

Hanekoma didn’t pay the six dead auras- three players and their three Reaper partners- much mind as they entered. He deftly poured three drips-to-go for the harried young office worker sent out into the real world for her coworkers’ coffees. “Don’t you have a stamp card, miss?” he asked her, the poor girl trying to juggle papers and the cardboard tray.

“It’s somewhere in my wallet, don’t worry about it,” she insisted.

“Well, I gotta take payment, Shiho-chan, so if you don’t mind me riflin’ through, I can get it for you.”

Shiho wedged the wallet out of her pocket with an awkwardly placed elbow, completely frazzled enough to forget she could just put her coffees back on the counter.

“You’re a dear, Hanekoma-san,” she said with a small smile as he pulled out a thousand yen bill from her wallet for her, along with the punch card. She had six of the ten needed for a free drink, and with a little sight of hand, the six became seven.

“Shi-chi,” Hanekoma said, flipping the newly defaced card to face her. “Your coworkers just got you a free drink. What can I do for you?”

“Something sweet, and cold,” she asked. “One of those horrible slush things you complain the high schoolers always order.”

“ ** _Boba_** ,” Hanekoma groaned, like he was spitting out a curse. “Fine, but don’t make it a habit. This is a coffee shop, not a sweets shop,” he added with a small grin.

Hanekoma ripped up the stamp card, and got to work shoveling ice and azuki beans in a blender, whipping up the drink. He filled the bottom of the plastic cup with boba, poured on the slush, capped it with a dome, and was a moment away from handing a good customer a free drink when the three Players actually entered his field of vision.

Normally, this would be hardly cause for concern. The players were extremely wary around living people, and usually waited for the so-called Faded to get away from the counter to come up and chat. Three Reapers, on duty and stalking their partners silently, stood relaxed in the corner of the shop near the door. Hanekoma eyed the Reapers first, he could start on their drinks from a distance if they signed him their orders. He’d throw the drinks on tabs, and they’d come back after the Game to pay.

But today, one of the players had something different that threw Hanekoma for such an unexpected loop, he dropped the drink straight out of his hand to splatter all over the kitchen.

One of the players, the one in the wheelchair, had a pair of absolutely filthy angel wings nesting around her.

* * *

Neku rolled into Hanekoma’s shop. A Faded woman stood at the counter, juggling a cardboard drink holder with three coffees and a ream of paperwork while a fox worked Hanekoma’s loathed blender in the back. Neku relaxed a little. Mr. H must have been out and had a Reaper working the shop in the meantime.

A Reaper powerful enough to hide their wings, because the crisp white shirt and waistcoat were too thin to stuff them under.

The fox turned forward in a controlled tornado of movement, capping the slush pretending to be a drink.

The barista looked up.

Looked straight at Neku.

And the drink splattered to the floor.

* * *

“Just a minute, now, I’ll clean this up,” Hanekoma hissed, embarrassed, to the young woman. “I’m never this… well.”

“Mr. H, I do need to get back to the office.”

“You do that,” Hanekoma said with a nod. “Next drink’s still on me, just remind me if I forget, you hear?”

The young lady nodded, walking straight towards the door.

And through Neku.

He never did like the living walking though him.

The woman gave a full body shiver as she leaned into the door to push it open.

“Are you okay, Sakura?” Moon asked, patting his shoulder. “I am not a fan of those things.”

“Neither am I, but they pay the bills,” gruffed out the fox loudly from behind the counter. “Flip the sign to closed, would ya? No Faded here now. Rather there not be while you three are here.”

Star did so and the trio worked their way around empty tables up to the counter.

“So, kiddos, how can I help?”

“You were talking to a Faded,” Star said, glaring at him. “ ** _How_**?”

“Eh. Some of us can. Not too important.”

“Those things are freaky, though,” Moon said, gripping her sister’s arm. “Freaky **_and_** silent.”

Hanekoma laughed. “You just need to learn to listen better. Them Faded wear their emotions on their sleeves. **_Literally_** , as you’ve noticed.”

“The monsters, yeah.”

Hanekoma sighed. “Look at the board, let me know what you want. I’m getting a mop.”

Neku watched Hanekoma’s movements. His tail swished languidly as he went hunting in a side closet, his ears perked back to listen in on their conversation. Neku knew Hanekoma of all people could be a human-sized fox if he really wanted, but the living human, even without hearing her half of the conversation, didn’t seem the least fazed by him. Glamour then, maybe? Neku eyed the empty corners of the room. Three Reapers had to be just out of visibility’s reach.

Neku hid a smile behind his hand. It was obvious Hanekoma had seen through him- it was only a matter of time, and the dropped drink couldn’t have been a clearer state of shock.

Time to press his buttons.

“Hey, Mister,” Neku asked. “You looked like you saw a ghost when we came in. Something wrong?”

“Nothing,” Hanekoma said, gritting his teeth, trying to avoid eye contact with Neku. “Just… you looked like someone I know. Honest mistake.”

“Your **_daughter_**?” Neku needled. Neku could have sworn he heard a tiny gasp from behind him. Oh, there was going to be **_gossip_** in the Reaper bunkhouses tonight. He was doing his damndest not to break out laughing.

He’d have to ask Hana for some acting lessons.

Hanekoma sighed, more frustrated than before. **_Neku, if that’s you, I’m going to strangle you._**

**_Would you strangle a twelve year old who’s just been run over? Would you?_ **

Hanekoma mopped the floor, eyeing the trio warily. “Can’t keep the shop closed all day. Order and go.”

“Sakura, what did you mean?” Star asked, hand gentle on a shoulder as she watched the fox mop the floor, annoyed. (Hanekoma liked making food without using his psychs, but cleaning, no, that was what his powers were for.)

“I think the fox is my dad,” Neku insisted, doing his damndest not to corpse. Well, not to screw up at least. He’d already been a corpse enough, thanks.

 ** _You really want to do this?_** Hanekoma bothered him privately. **_Fine. Two can play this game._**

Hanekoma tapped Neku’s mind harder, and Neku let him have Sakura’s memories. Her absentee dad and all.

“I’m not Sakura’s dad,” Hanekoma sighed out.

“Then how’d you know my name?” Neku bit back. Hanekoma had the decency- and acting chops- to look embarrassed, ducking his head, though it was hard to tell without any visible blush under his rust-colored fur.

“I… oh, forget it. Yes. Hi. Your dad is a yokai. Happy now?” Hanekoma narrowed his eyes, staring past Neku, Moon, and Star to an empty void near the entrance to the store.

“Holy-” Moon started, as Star covered her mouth.

“Oh, she’s heard me say worse,” Hanekoma insisted, coming around the side of the counter to squat and look Neku in the face. “Can’t say I’m happy about seeing you given the circumstances, but I’m glad you’re safe, kiddo. These two treating you all right? You only in a group of three?”

“We have a Horse in our group, so he’s outside with a guard.”

“There’s my smart one,” Hanekoma said, bearing teeth in what looked like a grin as he mussed up Neku’s hair. “Well then, he can’t enter the shop, but he’s not barred from my living quarters. I’ll unlock the side entrance for him, and we can head upstairs. Guess I will stay closed a bit longer.”

“Wait… for real? You’re Sakura’s dad?”

Hanekoma nodded. “It’s a long story, but yeah. Gonna have to carry you up, kiddo, I don’t have a ramp to the second floor.”

* * *

Neku held on tightly around Hanekoma’s neck, face smooshed against soft, thick rusty fur. Whatever this was, it wasn’t glamour. He’d solved the mystery of why Players were invisible to him, now he had a new set of questions to answer.

“You’re like a big plush toy,” Neku muttered aloud.

“Yeah, yeah,” Hanekoma grumbled, leaving Neku’s wheelchair at the base of the stairs, holding him in a bridal carry with just one arm hooked under his knees like someone who was used to carting around children one-handed.

Neku suddenly had a mental image of Hanekoma handling a petulant or sleeping Joshua like this and almost broke out laughing. Still holding Neku, he unlocked the side entrance to the shop and gestured. Moon took the hint and scurried out the door to bring Ace and Momo around.

“Doing okay, kiddo? What’s up with your legs? You’re a Ram, not a Monkey.”

“They said it was psychotic or something. From the car that killed me.”

“Psycho ** _somatic_** , Sakura. Means it’s in your head.” Hanekoma bored a hole in Neku’s skull as he continued in private. **_You know Haniel cursed you, right? I smell it all over you._**

**_Yeah, she cursed me. And hit me with a delivery truck._ **

**_Teaching you a lesson, probably_** , Hanekoma added, rolling eyes at him. **_She didn’t have to kill you to scoop up your soul. You’re already dead._**

 ** _Well awa_** \- Neku started, as Moon brought Ace and Momo inside.

“Smells amazing,” Momo said, breathing in the thick aroma of Hanekoma’s coffee.

“I can’t smell anything, or see past the stairwell,” Ace griped.

“Up you go, all of you,” Hanekoma barked out. “I’ll bring up drinks and food, but you’re still paying me for them.”

* * *

“You’re her father, and you’re still making us pay?” Ace asked incredulously, eyeing Hanekoma.

“If I gave Sakura preferential treatment, I’d get more than just an earful from Queen Himiko,” Hanekoma shot back. Neku was a terrible liar, but spending enough time around Josh made him unusually equipped to recognize the skill in others. Maybe it was angelic intuition, Neku didn’t know. But that should have been locked up with everything else if that were the case.

Whatever the reason, Neku was positive Hanekoma was being honest. It made sense. He’d already fallen, just two ranks down and his power had been ripped straight from the roots, literally so. Neku was sure Hanekoma was sleeping one eye open, awaiting the Higher Planes of Whatever to come and strike him when his guard was down.

He should take care of his Reapers better. Mr. H included.

“‘S okay, Dad,” Neku said. The word fell off his tongue easier than he expected it to. Hanekoma had been the father his own hadn’t been earlier in the year. “Everyone’s been real nice, though.”

“That bartender yesterday was a hair short of throwing a bottle at us,” Moon reminded him.

“Until we talked to him!” Neku insisted. “Sometimes people just need an ear.”

“Sakura’s not wrong. Listening to others, hearing their side of the story, working together, it’s all important.” Hanekoma pulled Neku into his lap, absentmindedly detangling his hair with his canidae claws. It was the first time Neku actually felt like a kid in this form, rather than just himself, but shorter.

Ace shifted nervously on Neku’s stool, keeping a wary eye on the stack of canvas in progress behind him on the tarp. “You’re all testing us, to see if we’re worth bringing back.” It wasn’t phrased as a question. Ace sipped his coffee, black, then glared fiercely at Hanekoma. This was the first Neku had ever seen the older man so passionate. He seemed… angry.

“It’s… yes. It’s a test. But not for what you think it is.” Hanekoma’s free arm squeezed Neku, possessively.

Ace snorted. “If I don’t get home, fox, my son will **_die_**. Unlike **_you_** , I don’t abandon my kids.”

Hanekoma’s fur bristled, his ears tipped flat back against his skull.

“I didn’t abandon anyone. My wings were ripped out.”

Ace blinked, confused. “Come again?”

“Have you looked closely at the yokai? Noticed anything odd about their backs?” Hanekoma asked pointedly.

“I saw it at the bunkhouse. Some of them have these big black wings. Like they’re made of metal,” Neku helped. “I think they’re hiding them under their kimono.”

“And does it look like I can hide a pair of wings under a dress shirt?” Hanekoma pressed.

“I dunno, maybe if I could see,” Momo griped.

“Anyone besides this young lady,” Hanekoma clarified with a sigh. “I’ve already been punished by the gods once. I do something to anger them again and I might not exist at all. Like you said, can’t watch over your kid if you’re **_dead_** , Tatsuhiro-san.”

Ace started to sweat. “How do you know my name? Not even the wolf who singed me in knew it.”

“Do you know where you are? Where you **_really_** are?”

“The northeast side by the Keio station,” Star offered. “Except its some alternate reality.”

“What shop is on the northeast side corner across from that station, Tatsu-san?”

Ace fidgeted. “A coffee shop. The one I started coming to last month when it opened.”

“Every day before work. I don’t forget my regulars. Ever seen me leave?”

“I’ve never seen a fox in the- **_you’re Hanekoma_**. You’re bound to the shop?”

“While a game’s in play, yes. Part of my punishment. I have to get permission from a god to leave.”

Neku blinked. That sounded just as sincere; it sounded like a more extreme form of the district lock on normal Reapers, one that only an angel had the power to break. Hanekoma had never mentioned the inability to leave before, but he’d only seen the barista leave his shop once- when they drove to the team meeting that past Friday. His mother said he’d stopped by once before, too, but that was it.

Neku couldn’t even begin to fathom how stifling that was. The game was still technically in play **_all week_** for the five Rams without the ability to enter stasis. So, either there’d been no game last week, or Haniel must have given him permission, somehow.

Neku looked up at the man he’d come to know as a friend, broken, scared, grounded, and now with another descriptor to add to the pile.

 ** _Imprisoned_**.

“You have your chair-bound child. I am bound to my shop. And I don’t know too many preteens who fancy a coffee.”

Ace relaxed a little on his stool. “Thank you for the drink.”

“I never said it was the **_only_** thing I’d do,” Hanekoma insisted. “I’m still a shopkeeper. I can give you whatever information I have, and that’s free of charge.”

“Okay, so give,” Neku insisted. Hanekoma laughed and shoved him sideways on the sofa.

“First, let’s see that map of yours. I might be able to point you all to something useful.”

* * *

Neku found it hard to read the yokais’ expressions. But even he could tell the sheer shock on Hanekoma’s face. “You’re trying to… **_what_**.”

“Move the dragon after he wakes up,” Neku repeated, chipper, his scroll laying flat and floating between them all. “He’s over here, by the shrine in Tangi, in the center of Hachioji, right?”

“And it looks like, from the quest markers, one of the other teams is pretty far along to reviving him. Careful, now. They might make a break for Queen Himiko the moment he’s up again and shut everyone else out from being revived.”

“They can do that?” Ace asked, spluttering a little.

“Can, **_yes_**. I’ve not seen it happen, though I’ve heard it done. When a group enters her chamber, they can choose to start the ceremony, or pass. If it strikes midnight on Saturday going into Sunday and the ceremony hasn’t started, nobody is brought back.”

“Wait, so once you enter you have to decide to revive yourself and anyone else there or risk waiting for another group?”

Hanekoma nodded. “And you can only choose the one time. So, as you can tell, there’s a rush to get there as quickly as you can. Nobody wants to be shut out. I’d offer my favor to the Emperor, but she’s not exactly happy with me at the moment.”

 ** _Suuuuuure she isn’t._** Neku thought at him. **_It’s just Crystal, isn’t it._**

 ** _For someone who didn’t want to know anything going in, you sure as hell know a lot, Neku_**. Hanekoma mussed his hair, continuing aloud. “Enough Yokai like my coffee, not that there’s much game in town. You’ve seen their stuff. Traditionalists, the lot. I can hype up your plan to convince the dragon to move. And… hm. The old Hachioji castle ruins would probably be a good bet as any to convince it towards. Dragons like castles as much as Sakura likes needling me.”

Hanekoma put his finger on an unmarked part of Neku’s map, lifting it away to reveal a circle. “The X’s are other yokai with tasks. Circles are waypoints. You can always have the map read things aloud.”

Neku watched, curious, as the circle became an X, large and royal purple.

“Well, whaddya know. Map here thinks your idea isn’t so asinine. It’s registered as a quest now.”

“Does that help?” Moon asked.

“It means Her Ladyship herself has approved this one. If you can manage to convince her pet to skedaddle over there, she’ll be willing to see you. Impressively fast, I know, but, well. Her Highness sees all. I’m sure she’s been following you with interest. Especially considering… well.” Hanekoma smiled, canines shining, as he stood, stretched, and ruffled Neku’s hair again.

Neku realized it was because he couldn’t ruffle his wings instead. They were tucked away on a different plane. It must have been killing Hanekoma to not be able to see how Neku was really feeling.

“Now you five. Pay up. I’ve got a business, here, and I need to look at least a bit responsible. How much time you have left?”

Star checked her scroll. “Four hours left today.”

“Take care of some of those smaller X’s, and if you can, cross to the station. You probably want to take a peek at it, even if you can’t go in. Stand still while you’re in front of it a minute or two. The fog’ll clear. If you’re hungry, pop back here. I’ll fix you up cheaper than that blasted udon place down the street. Just watch your backs. The shikigami run rampant around here.”

Neku laughed internally. Of course Hanekoma would be mad about someone else’s udon.

* * *

Neku rolled out into the middle of the major crossing in front of Hachioji Station, Ace frantic on his heels. “Sakura what are you-!”

A car sped through them both.

“I got run through yesterday, its okay,” Neku replied cheerfully. “None of the Faded can hurt us. That includes the cars.”

“I can’t believe this whole world is under our one.”

“I still can’t believe Dad was fuzzy.” Neku really wanted to know the trick they were using.

“Well, maybe you’re part yokai?” Ace asked, smiling gently as the three women in their group caught up to stand in the middle of the road.

“Maybe,” Neku answered. “Would explain why I’m so good at all this magic stuff.”

Slowly, the five of them craned up, trying to look through the ever-present fog to where the station should have been. A few minutes passed, the five huddling together.

“Ace, why were you so upset when Sakura’s dad said your name?” Momo asked, accusatory, shifting from one foot to another while swaying a little and sniffing for errant shikigami. “Actually… Moon and Star, why are you using fake ones?”

Moon frowned. “I can’t remember mine. Star named us. When she said her name, I couldn’t hear it. Or mine. So, she made up these nicknames instead.”

Momo nodded to the ground, leaning into her cane. “Okay, so yours are fee related. I get that. But Ace?”

“I didn’t want anyone to know who I was.”

“No **_shit_** , Sherlock.”

Ace sighed. “I’m… someone on the news a lot. I didn’t want undue attention. Ace is my son’s nickname for me, we play a lot of cards together. I lay them out, and he tells me what to do. So… well. Now you know. And if your next question is how we all died, I fell down a flight of stairs.”

“Anticlimactic,” Momo said.

“With an active power drill in hand. I was fixing up our new home with a machine to lift my son’s chair between floors.”

“Gross,” Momo whined, scrunching up her face like she had a mental picture of it all. “But I was about to ask, so fair. Sakura, you got hit by a car, right?”

“Coming home from school, yeah.”

Ace reached out and put his hand gently on hers on top of her cane. “You’re asking because you hope someone will ask you, right, Momo?”

Momo laughed. “Nah. And just a head’s up, I’m only helping because Sakura asked. I’m going to bail on you all on Saturday.”

“You will absolutely not,” Ace insisted, gripping her hand tighter. “You’re coming back with the rest of us.”

“To what?” she asked laughing hysterically. “There’s nothing for me to go back to. I’m happy being able to help for once. Do something where I’m not a total waste of air. I’m better off dead than-”

“Do not finish that sentence, young lady,” Ace insisted sternly as the fog began to clear.

* * *

There wasn’t a station before them. The fog swirled upwards in a tornado like vortex, angrily circling over a rusted, creaking hulking wooden and metal structure, both impossibly old and also oddly futuristic, like a spaceship had crashed into an Edo period castle, a harsh mish-mash of red rusted metal and red painted splintering wood. A giant crystal orb floated over the mess, an eye nestled in its center, circling and blinking, blocking out the sun. It looked down on the five of them, laughing silently before the vortex of haze spluttered out, spilling downwards in a silent avalanche of purple until the world returned to how it was before- visible only in a few meter circle.

Neku exhaled an un-needed breath he didn’t know he was still holding, white-knuckling the armrest of his chair. “Holy,” Ace articulated for the four of them.

“I couldn’t even see anything, and I know whatever is in front of us is bad news,” Momo muttered. “C’mon, lets just go do those side quests Sakura’s dad was on about. Play nice for a little while, while those other groups do the hard work.”

“Hardly seems hard if they’re far in on day two,” Ace noted. “But you’re right. We should get some more of the townsfolk on our side. It’s nice someone here isn’t mad at us from the onset.”

* * *

“Hoooooome,” Vanitas yelled to an empty apartment. He flopped on his back on the tatami, sighed, and relaxed enough to get smothered by Flood jumping from his shadow.

“Good abomination,” he hissed at it, petting it absentmindedly with a hand as he pulled out his phone with the other, taking a selfie.

Neku’s face stared back at him from the photo. “Least it isn’t Ventus,” Vanitas muttered, letting his hand drop.

The phone buzzed again. Vanitas groaned, pulling it up to his face to squint at the screen.

/gonna b late. make us din?

/rice cooker still gives me a heart attack

Vanitas smiled as the […] continued on the screen. Gabriel was typing and retyping an answer a few times.

/can pick us up pancakes from the maid café. 2 tired 2 cook

/pizza?

/yeah, sure. order. but not from m’s, it sux

Vanitas stuck his tongue out at the screen as Gabriel typed in an emoji, letting his hand fall, rubbing circles on Flood’s back to its rhythmic purr.

The door unlocked.

“Doing okay there, **_Neku_**?”

“Shove it, Josh. You’re back early.”

“Only for three hours, then I have night shift with Uri.”

“Ouch. Getting some shut eye?”

“Eh, I can sleep at dawn. Gabe’ll wake you tomorrow and see how bad it is. Why don’t you tell me about your day, instead?”

“What a good boyfriend you are,” Vanitas groaned as he sat up.

“That would require me to be a boy,” Joshua reminded him with a smirk.

“Semantics,” Vanitas muttered. “Partner doesn’t sound right.”

“We can go and fight some Noise if you’re up to it,” Joshua suggested.

“Not now.”

“I can leave you be if you’d rather,” Joshua offered.

Vanitas thought for a solid minute. “No, I could use the company.”

“Here or my room?”

“Yours.”

* * *

Joshua seated himself on the floor of his tiny bedroom, not even large enough to spread his wings to full span. Instead, he arched them around, using the window ledge as support for one and hooking the alula of the other on the door handle at the opposite end. Vanitas stepped carefully around the limbs before settling to Joshua’s side.

After a moment, Joshua’s stomach began to rise and fall in a slow rhythm, one Vanitas silently matched.

“School wasn’t so bad,” Vanitas said, once his breathing had evened. “Shiki scared me in the morning, but it died off after an hour or two. Not a fan of the lunch, though.”

“If you ask nicely I’m sure Gabe will pack you lunch.”

“She offered. I should have taken it. The choices were pork stir fry or beef curry. At least I could pull out the pork from the dish.”

“Right. You must be starving.”

“I’m okay for now. Scratch me behind the ears though.”

Joshua shifted himself slightly and carded through Vanitas’s hair. “Good?”

“Close up your wings.”

Joshua curled his wings around them, not enough to touch Vanitas directly, but enough to cocoon them both in a soft expanse of white. “Just let me know when you want to come up for air.”

“I promised Gabe I’d order dinner,” Vanitas said, shooting up, in a panic.

Joshua shushed him. “And you will. It’s only 4PM. When have you ever had dinner this early?”

“Right, right…” Vanitas slowly let the prickling sensation at the back of his neck abate as he settled back at Joshua’s side, just trying to be in the moment.

“Now **_breathe_**. Just because you don’t need to doesn’t mean it’s not good for you.”

* * *

“We’ve got ten minutes left. Why don’t we go to the entrance of the coffee shop and regroup?” Ace asked, wiping his brow.

“We’ve got nothing better to do,” Momo agreed.

“Other than work on your personal ideations, young lady? I didn’t forget the conversation in the street crossing.”

“None of us did,” Star insisted. “You’re not bailing on us on the last day. You’re in our group. Sakura, you remembered the last game.”

“Mhm. I stayed friends with my partner, too, after we came back to life. I’m sure we can try and help.”

“Your dad can’t leave that shop,” Momo griped as they loitered near the entrance. “You think your dad will let us use the side entrance?”

“I’m not going to ask him to do that for me,” Ace insisted. “We should be safe from the shikigami here. They seem to be repelled by the yokai owned stores. They must be warded, somehow. And Momo, whatever it is, maybe I can.”

“You can’t take away my shitty father,” Momo spat.

“I’m sure I couldn’t. But I can help in other ways, I’m sure.”

Neku sighed. “There was another choice, though.”

“Aside from being brought back to life?” Ace asked. “What would that possibly be?”

“Become one of them, yokai, I guess. In Chiyoda they were called DMs. Same idea. You get food, a place to stay, a job.”

Momo smiled sadly. “Sounds better than going back to where I was before.”

Ace frowned. “Sakura, I’m sorry but that’s no choice at all. Who would want to live here, with all these monsters around?”

“Better these monsters than the ones at home,” Momo bit. “You’re not my dad, you’re not Sakura’s dad, you don’t have that right.”

“Please,” Star breathed out. “No fighting. We only have a few more minutes until Sakura’s alone.”

“Her dad is three meters away, she’s fine,” Momo snapped back. “At least he’s a decent guy.”

“Can’t we just go over what we need to do tomorrow?” Moon asked. “We can try and pick this up then while we try and head back to the shrine.”

“Sakura can go there while we sleep,” Ace suggested.

“Oh no you don’t,” Momo roared back. “You don’t get to diss her father in one breath and demand her to go out alone in another just so you can see your precious baby again.”

“I am **_not going to die here_** , you-”

Four wooden charms clacked to the ground.

* * *

After the humbling task of unbuckling himself from his chair, gathering up his team-mates, and pulling himself back into said chair, Neku contemplated his next action. Mr. H’s shop was still open. It was better to duck in there than try to fight the throngs of Noise outside- there was a lot, some of it fairly large.

“Oooooooosu!” Neku turned his head towards the familiar sound, as a welcome shadow poked from the gloom.

“Hi Miss Sayuri!” Neku called out to the boar-lady. She must have been waiting just outside his range, with that scroll of hers that tracked Players. Hana had to still be nearby, too.

Sayuri leaned against the glass window, smiling as best she could with tusks. “Always good to see a friendly face. Heard a bit of a scuffle on my way here, you okay?”

“ ** _I’m_** fine. My team-mates were fighting.”

“Sorry to hear that, dearheart. Adults have a way of it, don’t they?”

“Yeah…” Neku sighed, agreeing with the Reaper completely. “They do.”

Sayuri took off her pack and leaned into it. “Why’re you waiting by a coffee shop? If you’re afraid to cross all these shikigami on your lonesome, you can come back with me. We’ve always got a warm bed and warm dinner waiting. Come now, you may be dead, but you’ll still catch cold.”

“Do I… do I have to stay in the dorms?” Neku asked.

“You don’t, but you’re still a wee one. A few of us adults’ll stay guard with you if you insist on puttering around outside. ‘S cold, and not exactly safe, Sakura-chan.”

“I… I was going to ask the coffee shop owner if I could stay with him.”

“Don’t bother the shopkeeps none, child,” Sayuri replied, clearly taken aback. “Or, well. Between you-me I heard a rumor. Walls have ears, you see.”

 _‘Or one of my team-mate’s invisible Reaper partners is a snitch_ ,’ Neku thought to himself with an internal laugh.

“A rumor?”

“You knew the barista when you were alive.”

“Sanae is my dad,” Neku said confidently. “I didn’t see him for months ‘n months… and now he’s here. Can… can he really not leave unless a god lets him out?”

“I don’t know, love. All I know is that he did something to anger the gods. He told us what it was, and I completely understand what he did. None of us yokai are mad at him or anything like that. He did something bad, yes, but he did it to protect people. Can’t fault him none for that. Wonder if he was protecting you, child. Wouldn’t doubt it.”

“Well? Can I?”

Sayuri rapped her knuckles on the rattan rucksack. “Why don’t you ask? I’ll send word back to my siblings and see if it’s okay.”

“Sanae is a good person!” Neku insisted honestly, before remembering why they’d lost their last Conductor. Of course Sayuri would be worried about leaving a little girl alone with an older man, a fallen angel especially.

“All right, then. In you go, ask him. I’ll talk to my siblings in the meanwhile.”

* * *

Neku waited patiently for the small line of the living- **_of the Faded_** \- to get their early evening beverages before rolling over to the counter.

“It’s after hours, kiddo.”

“Can I stay with you tonight?” Neku asked, half a smirk on his lips.

Hanekoma’s shades slid down his nose. “Dorms ain’t good enough?”

“If you want your privacy, I can…”

“’S fine, so long as you don’t mind the couch. I don’t feel comfortable with you taking the hammock with your legs all messed up… Sayuri… hello,” Hanekoma half-grinned. “The usual?”

“Er, yes, actually, please and thanks,” Sayuri replied, fishing around in her waist pouch for change. “I can take Sakura home with me.”

“It’s no trouble, so long as its okay with the old guard. I know I’m not exactly an upstanding member of the community yet.”

“They said its all right, so long as one of us stays here too.”

“A babysitter?” Hanekoma laughed. “Righty then. I’ll cook for three.”

* * *

Neku couldn’t have been more relieved when Hana stepped through the front door a few minutes later. Hanekoma grinned, waved Sayuri off, and turned the Open sign over to Closed. “Sorry everyone still loitering,” he said, to the four people still in his shop. “Family thing tonight, I’m not kicking you out, but I do need to start cleaning.”

Three of the four Faded hurriedly gathered up their things, and left. The last one took his time with his croissant, disappearing in bites when it neared his face, waved at Mr. H, and left.

“You’re.. you’re not really Sakura’s father, are you?” Hana asked, once the last patron disappeared out of view into the fog.

Neku and Hanekoma gave each other side eye. “It’s complicated,” they said in unison.

“Is anyone else watching us that I can’t see?” Neku hissed, looking between Hana’s clearly shocked face (or were bird eyes always like that?) and Mr. H’s smirk.

“Nah, it’s just my babysitter,” Mr. H replied.

“Good, ‘cause Hana sniffed me out day one,” Neku said, grinning.

“You figured it out, too?” Hana asked. “Wait… does that mean you’re really that girl’s dad or our Composer’s?”

“Neku and I go back far enough,” Mr. H. said. “Saved his butt enough times too. And I guess I cheated. I can see Neku’s wings even though you Reapers can’t. Only a matter of time, really. Neku, they’re absolutely filthy.”

Hanekoma reached out to touch empty space, then recoiled, rubbing his hand. “Ouch. Okay, not just filthy. **_Cursed_**. This is how your powers are bound up, then?”

“I guess so, You Know Who didn’t tell me how they did it.”

Hanekoma frowned. “Fair enough. If it’s just us, then, I’m going to stop being a fox for a while. Still not used to the dang thing.”

“Hey, Mr. H?”

“What’s up, kiddo?” Hanekoma disappeared up the steps, returning after barely a moment out of sight in his humanoid form, stretching out his black pimple-pocked wings.

“Crystal’s going to get on your case about that,” Hana admonished him.

“I wouldn’t do it in front of a **_real_** player,” Hanekoma said lazily, waving off the concern. “You can take a break, too, you know. Neku’s not going to squeal.”

“Angel’s honor,” Neku swore.

“You still haven’t figured out how we all take these forms, have you?” Hana asked.

“Not a clue.”

“Then I’ll see you in a few,” Hana said, a bit of a smile in her voice as she vanished up the stairs. Hanekoma rolled out his shoulders as he went to the back of the café kitchen, pulling a slab of something out of one of the industrial fridges, beginning meal preparation.

“What’s the question?”

“Oh, yeah,” Neku said, looking down at his hands, wondering if he should offer help or stay out of the way. He wasn’t a half bad cook, but the space wasn’t exactly large and making Hanekoma dance around his chair wasn’t his idea of fair. “What you said earlier. About being stuck in the shop. Is it true? It didn’t sound like you were lying.”

Hanekoma was silent a few moments as Hana descended the stairwell, in sweats and a loose shirt. She looked like a woman in her late thirties, roughly Hanekoma’s apparent age, about how old his own mother looked. Black hair tied up in a messy bun, with bangs long enough on one side to conceal an eyepatch. She’d been one of the people who sparred with Neku at the meeting Friday night.

“You… don’t have to answer,” Neku offered.

“No, it’s true. You or… well. You know who else can let me out.”

“When you came by to offer me the studio space?”

“I got permission from you-know-who. And when we fought Noise, well, you asked me to come. Same with driving you to the meeting. I… I offered it as part of my plea bargain.”

“ ** _You_** suggested house arrest?”

“They were going to send me to work the Falkland Islands,” Hanekoma said quietly. “They’re so sparsely populated they have one, maybe two games a year. Joshua and Gabriel stepped in on my behalf. Gabe suggested Hachioji, and Joshua told me to offer voluntary house arrest. Offering you the studio space was for as much my benefit as yours. I assumed a friend of Gabriel’s would be as well... as friendly as her. But you-know-who can be like trying to talk to a brick wall.”

Hana stood silent, eyes flicking between them. “I can excuse myself, if you need.”

Hanekoma shook his head. “Nah, it’s just politics. Petty politics. I’ll be the first to say I deserve what I got, but.”

“No, you didn’t,” Neku replied sternly. “Joshua told me the whole story. As much as he could. You didn’t do anything wrong. You did the equivalent of stealing expensive medicine to save your dying child.”

Hanekoma laughed loudly. “Shibuya was pretty sick, wasn’t she?”

“Josh, too.”

“Yeah, Josh too. I’m glad you knocked some sense into him, Neku. You did good. More than I ever did.”

“Oh, you missed the few months of me literally punching his teeth out,” Neku said, wheeling just outside the kitchen to see if he could help.

Hanekoma whistled. “Hope someone recorded it. Hey, Hana, do me a favor and grab the portable stove for me and set it up at one of the tables near an outlet?”

“Of course, Master Hanekoma.”

“None of this Master business,” Hanekoma said, waving it off. “I hear Josh’s Reapers have started doing the same thing.”

Neku smiled. “He haaaates it. So, they do it more.”

“I’m glad they’re pushing his buttons. Neku, can you grab the shabu-shabu pot from the lower rack here for me?”

“Yeah, of course.” Neku navigated around, following where Hanekoma pointed. He could easily have telekinetically set it all up, but it was nice to be needed. “You don’t have peanut sauce, do you?”

Hanekoma made a face. “You complained about my espresso soup and you’re asking for peanut sauce. Shabu-shabu needs oyster or sweet soy.”

“Hey, that soup ended up being amazing. And I like what I like.”

“I’m just pushing your buttons, Boss. I have plenty of peanut butter in the fridge. Go get it heated up.”

“Water and konbu?”

“If you can. Konbu is in the side cabinet with the dried shiitake.”

* * *

Hana sat laughing at Hanekoma’s work desk as Neku checked on the barista’s wings. “Two more in, now.”

“Josh stopped by yesterday morning before I opened shop.”

“To preen two feather tips?” Neku asked with a laugh.

“And give me an espresso shot’s worth of inspiration. Odd of him to come all the way out here just for me, but I’m not going to complain.”

Neku rolled his eyes, thinking of Joshua’s attempt to scare him. It felt like far more than just one day ago. “Hana, what’s so funny?”

“Dorm chat. They’re going bonkers.”

“News travel that fast?”

“Things get around fast, but man. This story’s the juiciest thing since Clyde. Yuri is insisting she read your mind and found something about an absentee dad? Also, a bunch of the Reapers are arguing that since you’ve died before you should be exempt from playing the rest of the week. Some even just want to offer you Reaperhood if you can fight Crystal. A few saw how strong you were and don’t think your soul needed any more refining. Also, there’s a not insignificant group of people who think Neku is hiding as Hanekoma and want to beg you- you being Neku hiding as Mr. H- to go get him back from vacation so he can see his daughter. They think Neku swapped on purpose so the two wouldn’t meet.”

Hanekoma and Neku got a good laugh in. “I can’t believe nobody’s ratted Neku out. Kiddo, you’re not even a good liar.”

“Oh, I suck. And I straight up told the doctor that looked at me this morning.”

“To be fair, she would have mis-diagnosed you,” Hana replied. “I would have done the same in your weird-ass situation.” Hana stretched out in her chair. “Don’t get me wrong I like being on partner duty but having to run around with bird feet and sore arms stinks. Mr. H, you have a bath? I need a soak.”

Hanekoma pointed to a door on the furthest side of the large studio room. “Take all the time you need. There’s towels and yukata inside. The Lily dorm’s bath was broken the last two weeks, so I let the Reapers from that dorm use it. Figured might as well leave it stocked for guests.”

Hana bowed graciously and slipped into the adjoining room. Neku waited in silence, shifting himself on the sofa and watching Hanekoma move around to set up an extra futon for his surprise guest.

“Hey, Mr. H?”

“What’s up, kiddo?”

“I figured out why I don’t need a partner, and why I’ve never seen Players. But what’s up with all the animals? And how are all the living walking around with the big disc-like mask things on?”

Hanekoma smirked. “Did you see any living humans walking around before someone talked about them?”

“…no?” Neku ask-answered, trying to recall the day before. “A bartender warned us about them.”

“That starting area is another offshoot of the private Reaper space in Tangi.”

“I figured that much out once I got to the main road.”

“You know how your group is tracked, yes?”

“We’re all partnered with the case worker we started with. They’re on the other half of the Noise plane.”

“If you’d have gone towards where people were **_before_** hearing about the living from someone, they would have texted for someone to intercept your group and warn you.”

“Wait, so since we were warned that the living all wore masks… that’s what I saw?”

Hanekoma nodded. “The Noise plane usually doesn’t let you see the living at all. But the Hachioji Noise all belong to one giant plane of several layers instead of many broken ones.”

“I didn’t notice when I fought Noise, but it does make sense,” Neku admitted.

“The Noise in Gion worked like that, too,” Hanekoma admitted. “At least when I was Conductor there ages ago. Once those expectations are set, that’s what you’ll see. It’s very hard to shake. I have to actively remind myself they’re just living people when I step completely in a Noise plane here.”

“And the animals work the same way?”

Hanekoma reached over to his desk, holding an ancient looking fox mask. “Close your eyes or it won’t work.”

“You’re just going to hide it.”

“I’ll prove it.” Hanekoma lifted his hands to his face, putting it on. “See? Close your eyes. Now remember what I looked like when you walked in my shop ear-oh, yep, there’s the tail. You can open.”

Neku opened his eyes to Fox-Hanekoma, the same as how he saw him earlier, except his plucked wings sat awkwardly on his back. “It’s the same perspective trick?” Neku asked. “How?”

Hanekoma put his hands to the sides of his head and pulled. The ornate festival-style mask was like the one Neku wore (with eyeholes, at least). The interior was plastered with paper charms. “The Noise plane is where many things take form. People’s fear, anger…”

“And Imagination,” Neku said, slowly clicking the pieces in place. “It’s why most players can’t actually use their psychs in the UG proper. The Noise plane just has more room to let Imagination run wild. In the same way we got primed to think the living people were faceless masked zombies, we see those animal masks as real. So they are.”

“If someone sees the emperor has no clothes, as it were,” Hanekoma offered, “they don’t have enough Imagination. They won’t be able to reincarnate. The Reapers started doing it this way here back during the early Edo period to hide their identity. Death was more common there, and they wanted to hide that they were overseeing the game of people they knew. Like how the lower level Reapers in Shibuya hide their faces with their clothes.” Hanekoma handed the fox mask to Neku. “Try it. If you think it’ll work, or if people expect a fox, that’s what you’ll be.”

Carefully, Neku untied his Ram mask and set it aside. “And because all the players wear their masks askew, we see each other as the only normal humans.”

“You got it.”

Neku carefully fitted the fox mask on his face. It was a little too big- it was designed for an adult after all- bur Neku reminded himself how he’d seen Hanekoma earlier. And was immediately aware he wasn’t wearing a mask anymore. Neku blinked his eyes open to have a mirror thrust in his hands.

“Ack!” Neku let out a high-pitched squeak as he rotated his ears, seeing it in the mirror. “This is crazy. It’s not an illusion or glamour. I’m a **_fox_**.” Neku put the mirror down next to him and patted his face, feeling thick soft fur, whiskers, a textured wet nose. He reached behind him, feeling the tail at the base of his spine. “I’m guessing you can move your tail, but I can’t from the curse.”

“Probably, I can move it, but I don’t have a lot of control. I’ve only had that mask the last two weeks. I’ll get better with some practice.”

“Why a fox?”

“There weren’t too many options. You can’t just pick up a costume mask and it’ll work,” Hanekoma said. “Some magic needs to be in the thing, even if the rest is powered by the collective subconscious like how the whole world looks rusted and partially destroyed. That’s all from the conflicting opinions of everyone. Come to think of it, the goggles that let the living see the Underground use the same trick to work.”

“Ah,” Neku said, nodding. “How do I get it off?”

“Remind yourself of what it is.”

“Right, it’s just a mask,” Neku admitted, grabbing at the sides of his face, pulling up. The mask came off without complaint, and Neku rolled it around, looking at it from every angle. “Why didn’t I notice it before?”

“You weren’t looking for it, it’s only visible on the Noise plane. And I don’t wear it off hours. I close my shop to Rams after the main game day ends.”

Neku laughed. “Fair enough.”

Hanekoma reached out, grabbing the ancient wooden thing. He hung it up on a hook next to his desk and folded down on the sofa next to Neku, sighing.

“Neku, haven’t you seen enough? You’ve gotten the tour. The rest of the week is just going to be more drudgery to reinforce your imagination. You already gave your group one of the wildest objectives. Let me call Haniel and get that curse off you so you can go back to your normal life. Pop back in Saturday and shadow Crystal or Haniel to help them end the game and reincarnate the living. That’s all you’re supposed to do in the game, anyway. The rest of your job is dealing with Reaper disputes. The day-to-day is below your station.”

Hanekoma curled his hands like he wanted to preen Neku’s wings. Heal his curse, and feel what he was feeling, maybe.

Neku watched him intently. “You’re worried I’m pulling a Joshua.”

“Yes ** _, I’m worried you’re pulling a Joshua_**!” Hanekoma said, raising his voice a little. “The last time my boss does something as stupid as entering the Game themselves they almost destroyed the entire ward!”

Neku looked at the ground. “Joshua wasn’t **_trying_** to destroy Shibuya. He was attempting suicide.”

"He was... _**what**_."

“He **_wanted_** to be dethroned. He **_wanted_** me to take his job,” Neku continued, not looking Hanekoma in the eye. “He was depressed and angry.”

“I figured **_that_** much out,” Hanekoma replied, testily, after a long silence, placing a hand on Neku’s back between where his wings were. “I kept telling him to take a vacation. I could play Composer **_and_** Producer for a few weeks. It’s not the first time. But then he… he went and went reckless. Josh might be my elder, but I still considered him one of my kids. If only you knew how much my heart broke when I found out about his wager with Kitaniji. And then I saw you in the shop today. I don’t know how much more I can take.”

“I’m not here to prove a point, Mr. H. I’m here to learn. That’s all.”

“It still scares me, Neku.” Hanekoma sighed, eyes to the floor, fumbling with his hands like he was about to reach for a cigarette, before sitting on them to still them.

“It scares me, too. My partners started fighting just before the timer ended. I can’t imagine what tomorrow’s going to be like.”

“A hot shower and some rest would do you good, I think.”

Neku closed his eyes. “Yeah.”

“You’re really causing problems for all those reapers, you know? My phone’s been blowing up all day with people asking me about my love life.”

“Serves you right.”

Hanekoma just rolled his eyes. “They need to get a hobby.”

“They all have hobbies, wouldn’t be reapers otherwise,” Neku bit back.


	5. Sand Timer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya! Nanowrimo so I've been writing up a STORM. expect a few more chapters of this AND a brand new KH fic (not set in this AU, just a dumb post KH3 thing where Terra and Riku pal around inside their friends dreams for funsies).
> 
> Good to be back.
> 
> Also TW for this chapter assault (not sexual, offscreen, but may be triggering), and character death (of characters who are already dead, their deaths are discussed near the end of this chapter). TW for next chapter: spiders

Neku blinked the crust from his eyes and gently pulled himself upright on the sofa. He had to admit, the thing was supernaturally comfortable. Hana sat on the floor, back in her bird form and Edo-period clothing, running wing-fingers through her feathers as if she were styling her hair.

“We had some surprise visitors this morning that wanted to stop by,” Hana explained. “So, I’ll stay in costume in case more decide to come in for some - ** _ahem_** \- morning coffee.”

“How do your hands even work like that?” Neku asked, yawning, watching her fluff up the feathers on her head.

“Not great, honestly. I’m in line to upgrade to mammal, was supposed to get that fox mask, but higher rank gets first dibs. And Hanekoma needs proper hands to work, so… he cut the line and got it. I’m upset I didn’t get it, but I understand why I have to wait.”

“I guess making more is out of the question?”

Hana shook her head. “No, the Composer can do it. But only one or two at a time, so I’m told, and its backlogged with nobody picking up the slack.”

Neku winced. “Sorry.”

“You know how?” Hana asked slyly. Neku shook his head no. “Thought so. You’ve been here a month. I wouldn’t expect it.”

“What would you want, if you had a choice?” Neku asked, as he pulled his legs into a cross legged position. It was weird, having to yank on them to move them like he was puppeteering his own body.

“There’s only like three or four of them, but I really like the snow monkeys. So do the people that have them, though, so there’s no way I’m getting one in the next century.”

Neku smiled a little at that. “Can I see yours for a minute?”

Hana flicked her eyes. “I’m sure Hanekoma would bang on the door before entering if we have guests, so sure. Here. Be gentle with it. I’m screwed if it breaks.”

She stood up, popped her spine, and removed her eye patch, reveling an empty socket where the eye should be, then pulled at the sides of her face, until a wooden raptor face stared back at Neku instead of a real one.

“Real hands are so nice,” she said wistfully, rubbing a wrist as she passed the mask to Neku and slipped her eyepatch over her face.

“Can’t you regrow that?” Neku asked her curiously, looking at the cloth hidden under bangs.

“I can’t. Maybe the Composer could.”

“I’ve regrown my own limbs,” Neku admitted as he carefully turned the mask in his hands. Even with his angelic powers locked away he could feel the magic pouring from the wood, absolutely plastered on the inside with paper charms, faded older ones covered in layers of newer.

Neku sighed. “I’m not sure I feel comfortable doing that for others yet. I’d probably ask an angel if I could practice on them first.”

“So, if you screw up, they can put their own limbs back where they belong?” Hana asked with a smile, plopping down next to Neku.

“Pretty much,” he admitted, tracing his fingers along the contours of the ancient-looking mask. Carving was definitely not his specialty, and despite his skill painting, he was never particularly good at calligraphy for the wards on the inside, either. This was going to be one heck of a responsibility. He frowned tuning it over and over in his hands, passing it back to Hana. She removed her eyepatch, slid on the mask, and shook herself out as her tail reappeared.

“I always forget to stand when putting my mask on,” she grumbled, running ‘hands’ through her tailfeathers. “Now it’s all out of sorts.” Hurriedly, she put the eyepatch back on, when she noticed Neku staring down the empty socket.

“S-sorry,” Neku admitted, turning his head away, blushing, realizing he’d been caught.

“You’re not… grossed out?” Hana asked, wiggling her backside as she adjusted, flexing her talons and staring down at them.

“If that grossed me out, I’d have problems with myself on the daily,” he sighed out. “Uh… new angels can’t really control what they look like for a while. I’d wake up with a mouth inside my palm, or my body covered in eyes, or a leg where my ear should be. Another angel put on a very strong cloak of glamor on me, so I looked human. Hanekoma can see through it, but the Reapers shouldn’t be able to. This is the first time in a month I’ve woken up with the right number of limbs in the right spot, thanks to that curse.”

“You’ve been an angel… a **_month_**?”

“Didn’t I say so at the all-hands?”

“I remember you said ‘recently’, but recently in Reaper terms usually means like… last five years!”

Neku shrugged. “To be fair… it’s a really long story. The short version, I did a favor for a god, and she did one for me.”

“A **_god_**?” Hana asked, mouth agape. “Like. **_A_**. God. Gods are real?”

“I’ve only met one, but yeah, there’s more. I don’t know if they’re just really strong angels or if they’re something else, but they’re real. And scary powerful. It’s weird though, she was blind. For someone with that much power, you’d think…”

Hana touched her eyepatch. “I’ve been missing this for longer than you’ve been here, Neku. I said a Composer could probably fix it. I never said I tried to. Disabled doesn’t mean incapable. It’s part of the lesson we’re trying to teach these newbies.”

Neku looked down at his legs. “If you’re trying to give us these hard-knocks lessons, why do all the shops have those slopes at the entrance? Why do the scrolls talk and visually display info? That entire opening area with the dragons chasing us, too.”

“Call it wishful thinking,” Hana said, half lidding her eye. Neku realized she was trying to show a smile, despite the beak. “Ever notice that some non-Reaper shops have them too? That’s our influence. Making a world that’s safe for everyone’s a hell of a goal, but it was Zeke’s personal mission.”

“I’ll make sure its continued, don’t worry,” Neku said with a nod. “Speaking of. Can you teach me how to put on my kimono? I’m sick of being thrown around like a rag doll to get dressed.”

Hana fluffed Neku’s hair. “Going straight to tying a women’s kimono when you can’t stand is learning on hard mode. You sure?”

“I need something hard to do. Even with my bound powers, fighting’s too easy,” Neku shot back with a smirk.

“Don’t whine to me if your obi comes loose.”

* * *

When Hanekoma plodded up the steps with their breakfast, he made no mention of Neku’s slightly askew outfit, instead, commenting only on his headgear. “Don’ forget your mask, kiddo. No mask, no psychs.”

“Talismans,” Hana chided between bites of an egg croissant.

“They’re the same thing.”

“Thought we agreed **_your_** things are psychs,” she insisted. “I mean, yeah, same wellspring of power, but your pin things don’t work like the wood ones.”

Hanekoma slumped back in the sofa, rolling his shoulders. “Fair. Neku, you want any? I’ll have to take money, or it’ll look like I’m playing favorites.”

“You **_are_** ,” Neku and Hana both commented, mouths full.

“Well, enough that it’ll draw attention from Upstairs. No offense, I don’t really care what the Reapers think of all this; frankly, it’s hilarious.”

“Touché,” Neku said with a nod. “What do you have? And if they’re not talismans, can Star use them?”

Hanekoma absentmindedly bit on the lip of his paper coffee cup, before tilting it to the side of his face, muttering something about hating eating with a snout under his breath. He sighed and leaned inward. “Didn’t hear it from me… yes she could. They follow Brand rules, not Talisman rules. And since there’s no Brand restrictions here…” Hanekoma grinned wide, showing off some wickedly sharp fangs.

“I’ll pass for me, thanks,” Neku said, after a thought. “But I’m sure Star would love to hear that.”

“There’s a gacha machine downstairs. Five talismans for a spin.”

Neku winced. “ ** _Expensive_**. And random too?”

“Hey, gotta make it a little hard. It’s a good way to get talismans out of the market. They’re the cores of the Noise, after all. You Know Who and other producers use Noise stuff for various reasons. I can give you more info when we don’t have a Reaper around. Sorry Hana. Them’s the breaks.”

Hana winced at a loud buzzing, then pulled out her phone. “Reapers inbound. ETA five minutes. Game in ten. And I’m not insulted. Curious, extremely. Insulted, no.”

Hanekoma nodded. “I’ll go back down to the shop. Breakfast rush’s long ended, so I might come back up once the team’s awake. Hana… you need to make your -ahem- excuse to leave now, yes?”

Hana nodded. “Yup. See you tonight… Sakura.”

“You mean in ten minutes,” Neku smirked. “I’ll be the one seeing you tonight.”

Hana bowed her head and shook it. “This is why I never wanted kids. Later, you pedant.”

* * *

“- ** _asshole_**!” Ace screamed, pointing at the wall of the studio, before pirouetting around, taking stock of the space. “Momo, you are not telling me how to live my life!”

Momo sniffed the air, wrinkled her nose, and shrugged into her cane, satisfied in knowing where she likely was. “We’re not alive, last I checked,” she deadpanned.

Ace fumed. “I’m not going to stand here and take your self-deprecation, young lady!”

“Then sit!” Momo retorted.

Star and Moon looked between the two, locking eyes briefly with Neku sitting on the sofa, his crumb-crusted plate from breakfast still next to him.

“I… I need the bathroom, I’m going to go ask Sakura’s dad if I can use it,” Star said quietly. “Come on, Moon.”

“But I don’t-“ Moon started, before wincing as Ace began another verbal tirade. “Actually, I do need it. We’ll be back.”

Neku closed his eyes as he was forcibly caught in their verbal table tennis. Today… today was going to be rough.

* * *

Neku heard the thunder on the stairs, then witnessed the rust-furred barista slam through to the apartment. “If the two of you yell any louder, you’re going to attract every shikigami in a five-block radius,” he snarled at them.

 ** _That’s not how Noise works_** , Neku thought smugly.

 ** _Shut it, kiddo, these two need a double serving of a little off-menu dish I call perspective._** Aloud, Hanekoma noisily dragged a chair along the floor- Neku realized it was so Momo knew where he’d be sitting- and folded himself in it.

“You’ve literally put my poor kid in the middle of your bickering,” Hanekoma snapped, in a tone Neku had rarely witnessed. “And unlike the young ladies downstairs, she can’t just walk out of it. If you so much as say another nasty word to each other in my presence, I’m banning you all from the shop, and keeping her here. Are we clear?”

“But then she wouldn’t be able to see the Queen,” Ace sputtered. “You’d kill your own daughter for good?”

Hanekoma spread his arms wide to gesture at himself as he leaned back in his chair. “Your point?”

Ace looked flabbergasted as Momo snickered.

“Your attitude is just as much a problem, little lady,” Hanekoma chided at her. “I could taste the snark from the register downstairs. Negative emotions like that breed Shikigami. And the dead aren’t immune. It’s not just made by Faded.”

Momo twisted her cane in her hands. “What.”

“It’s harder for the dead like you to generate them, sure, but it’s not impossible. And when they’re generated from the dead, well… they **_are_** that thing. Sakura-chan, you’ve been in the game before, haven’t you?”

Neku inhaled sharply. “Downtown, they call it Noise. And yeah… I saw a few dead become them. Once you do… well… that’s what you stay.” ‘ _Self included_ ,’ Neku added to himself, reminded of his own true form now that he was an angel. Paint lines and sharp edges, only his inner thoughts a reminder that he was a person and not just a mess of color.

“So?” Hanekoma leaned back, eyeing Momo, then Ace. “I’m not asking you to kiss ‘n make up, but at least stop clawing at each other’s throats. Heard from my kid you don’t want to come back to life, Momo, but if you bow out now, you don’t get another chance to rethink that decision.”

Momo at least had the decency to shrug inwards, curling her hands around her cane.

Hanekoma flung his head in the opposing direction. “And Tatsu?”

“Stop using that name,” Ace grumbled, deflating a little.

“How about… no? Anyway, your singlemindedness is going to be the death of you, too.”

“But I’m right!” he griped.

“No, you **_think_** you’re right, and that’s a more dangerous thing, indeed. Listen to your partners. Clearly the young lady here has a reason she does what she does. She doesn’t seem irrational or in hysterics to me, so… maybe you could try shutting up and listening. Having a kid with a disability doesn’t give you any moral high ground, Tatsu. No more or less than anyone else. And hiding behind it is just going to hurt you. Do you really want to come back to life for your kiddo? Or is this also about you?”

Ace glared, but Hanekoma stopped him with a raised hand. “Never said being selfish was a bad thing, mind. Just understand where your priorities are.”

“He’ll die without me,” Ace snapped.

“And why is that?” Hanekoma asked pointedly. “You’re some big-shot politician with plenty of help and a wife.”

Ace grit his teeth.

“Sounds to me like you’re not on good terms with her, are you?” Hanekoma asked, relaxed, folding his arms behind his head and giving the older man some side eye. “Or maybe you don’t want it getting out that you have a full time second job taking care of a kid the world’s not allowed to see?”

Neku looked closely at Ace. The clothes and askew mask, and, now he realized, lack of a little makeup and stylist-perfect hair. Tatsuhiro something-or-other, some big-shot Diet person. Funny, he’d heard that the man was married, but not that he had kids.

“Not allowed to see?” Neku needled aloud as innocently as he could muster. The Reapers had their new drama with Hanekoma and his supposed daughter, it was only fair that Neku could stick his foot in whatever problems Ace had up his sleeve.

Ace crumpled.

**_I was hoping you’d help me touch a nerve._ **

Neku raised an eyebrow and looked at Hanekoma. **_What? Why?_**

 ** _I’ve known ever since the man came in my shop alive a month back. He was the single largest source of Noise in the downtown area for years, apparently. I’m going to get him to say it aloud, or I’ll never be able to help him._** Quietly, Hanekoma knelt down next to Ace, the older man rocking with knees pulled into his chest as he heaved in, trying to fight back a sob.

“Let me make you a hot cuppa,” Hanekoma offered quietly, before he yelped and almost pulled back in shock. Ace had grabbed a fistful of the fur between Sanae’s ears, pulling him into his quivering ball, as if he were grasping for a runaway floatation device in a shipwreck’s wake.

“I can’t… I can’t lose him,” Ace muttered into Hanekoma’s thick fur. Hanekoma relaxed his shoulders and pulled Ace around until the hug became mutual.

“Missus not helping, is she?” Hanekoma asked quietly.

“Opposite of,” Ace hissed into Hanekoma’s shoulder. The angel rubbed slow circles on his back, letting Ace have the time he needed to settle. It felt like an hour before Ace finally piped up again, partially obscured with his head curled on Hanekoma’s shoulder, a wet patch growing on the barista’s dress shirt. “Both our families got it into my head that I needed to keep the kid a secret,” he added, as the choking sobs dried up and he pulled himself upright. “First, because he was out of wedlock, and then… because of his… **_issues_**.”

“You must be exhausted.”

“Is it sad that the best sleep I’ve gotten is while I was dead?”

“Nah,” Momo piped in. “Best for me, too.”

Ace craned up. “I suppose I can see the appeal, running away from responsibility. But that’s not me.”

“Politician with integrity?” Hanekoma barked out a laugh. “Next you’ll tell me I’ll wake up a human one day.”

Ace smiled at that. “I think more of us start that way than you’d think, Mr. H. Most of us just lose our way. And I will take that tea. More so if its gratis.”

“Ooooh, bribes,” Hanekoma grinned. “Yeah, yeah, give me a few. I’d invite you down, but…”. He rapped his knuckles on the horse mask tied on the side of his head. “You’ll have to wait up here.”

“Don’t poison it or anything,” Ace said, wiping away at his face with a quick streak of his water magic.

“Can’t make you any more dead,” Hanekoma replied with a little wave as he exited the room.

Ace exhaled slowly. “Don’t think you’re getting off easy, now, Momo,” he said sternly. “We’re in this together, now. And you’re the best shot we have.”

“So, I’m just a means to your ends, then,” she said dryly. “You know, it makes more sense now, if you’re some sorta politician type. You sounded like it. Surprised you picked ‘no shops’ as your fee. You-”

“- ** _FUCK_**.”

Momo and Neku’s heads flung towards the sound, though Ace merely looked confused.

“You can’t see or hear anything going on in the shop,” Neku piped in, looking at Ace. “Dad just cursed. Maybe he slipped? Is he okay?”

“F---aaaurgh,” Ace whined. “I can only carry you down to the bottom of the landing, and Momo can’t see to carry you around and hold the banister. I just hope Star and Moon could-”

The stairs screamed under the sound of footsteps as someone shot up them. The door flung open, almost ripped on its hinge from the force as Hanekoma panted, eyes wide. “Where are they?”

“They?’ Neku asked. “Who?”

“Star and Moon,” Hanekoma breathed out. “They’re not in the café.”

“They **_ran_**?” Ace yelped.

“Well, they’re not downstairs, and they’re not here. So, probably. Left their hot chocolates behind, too.”

Neku frowned. “I don’t think they like fighting.”

“Well, that’s a given,” Ace breathed out. “Moon gave up her memories and Star can’t fight. Something tells me they don’t do confrontations well.”

“That’s not… entirely true,” Hanekoma admitted. “I sell special magic anyone can use.”

Ace frowned, his nose wrinkling. “And did you sell them this special magic?” he accused.

“I don’t know, but I can check.”

“What do you mean ‘you don’t know?’ How do you not know? This is your shop!”

“There’s a small prize machine in the front of the shop that only takes tokens,” Hanekoma said, frowning and looking away. “You even asked me about it before. What did I tell you about it when you were alive?”

Ace twitched a little. “You get tokens from visiting points of interest around Hachioji and can redeem them in there for a commemorative pin. Something for the kids to-”

Hanekoma walked to Neku, poking at a talisman slotted in an indentation in his mask. “Wonder where you’ve seen this shape before. Or, uh, Momo, felt, I suppose. I’m sorry for not including you in the conversation. I need to be better about that.”

“No big,” she said with a shrug.

“Yes, big,” Hanekoma said with a sigh. “You’re just as important. I need more practice. I was talking about the shape of the talismans you’ve been collecting. Five of those and you can use the machine downstairs. It spits out a random magic. One that anyone can use. I can empty the machine and see if Star used it while I was up here dealing with all of you.”

“No need,” Ace said, crossing his arms. “Each of us have been in charge of talismans of our own element. Star and Moon have all our earth and gold ones. They’d have enough to buy two or three spells. Star and Moon left, that’s a certainty.”

Hanekoma scanned the apartment, looking out to empty space. “Then we have a problem. The shikigami may have already claimed their souls,” he said, expression vacant. “I… I need a moment. Whatever you three do, do not leave this room. Outside is dangerous enough as it is.”

“What happens if… if a shikigami claims you?” Momo asked.

“Well… let’s just say there’s two of them where there once was one,” Hanekoma said quietly. “Just going out to the good night’s a better fate than demon fodder. I… I’ll be right back. I need to speak with some people. Do. Not. Leave.”

Hanekoma walked to Neku, hugging him tightly.

**_We have a problem._ **

* * *

Ace sat in a chair, looking at his hourglass. “How long have we been up, exactly?”

Momo sighed. “Alexa, how long have we been up today?”

“Thirty-eight minutes,” the mechanical voice chirped pleasantly.

**_Neku I’m talking with everyone’s partners downstairs, that’s why I told you not to leave the room. It’s warded._ **

**_What happened_** , he thought back.

 ** _Since Moon and Star only went downstairs to get away from the fighting, their Reaper partners stayed up with you. Didn’t think they needed to come down to the café_** , Hanekoma replied, a shiver of disdain shooting down from the crown of Neku’s head through his spine as far as it could go.

“A third of the hourglass is gone already,” Ace said quietly.

“Hey, Alexa,” Momo said, voice shaking a little. “How much time do we have for missions today?”

 ** _Wait_** , Neku shot back to Hanekoma. **_That means their partners didn’t leave with them._**

“Ninety minutes.”

**_That’s exactly what that means._ **

**_Can’t Sayuri track them?_** Neku asked desperately.

“We only have an hour left? And we’re supposed to wait?” Ace asked, flabbergasted.

**_No, that scroll is only for tracking Rams. That sort of tagging magic is a huge amount of work to maintain, so only those masks are traced. Star and Moon’s Reapers are getting chewed out, but that doesn’t solve the problem that they’re alone and partnerless right now._ **

“Well, I trust Sakura’s dad. You want to rush out there with a little girl in a wheelchair **_and_** a recently blinded woman? **_Really_**?”

**_I’ve kicked their asses out to go find them, but we need as many eyes on the ground as we can. Honestly, they could have been gone twenty minutes or more. The chance they’re not Noise food is extremely slim._ **

“I can’t leave them to just die while we sit doing nothing!” Ace cried. “I see this sort of dawdling on the job, I don’t need it here, too!”

**_We’ll look._ **

**_Hana said the same._ **

* * *

“You two go around the side entrance and wait at the front. I’ll load Sakura up with whatever you need that I have, but I am taking payment,” Hanekoma chided, as he hefted Neku back into the waiting wheelchair at the bottom of the landing.

Ace just nodded sternly. “I could use something to eat.”

“Same,” Momo added, gripping Ace’s arm as he swung open the alley entrance. “Be quick, Sakura.”

“Yeah.”

Neku wheeled at Hanekoma’s heels, eyes flicking to the side entrance to make sure it was closed. The barista sighed. “Everyone’s out but Hana.”

“Hi, there,” came a voice from nowhere.

“How do you stay so quiet all day following us?” Neku asked, trying to pinpoint exactly where she was standing.

“Sign language and texting; our phones don’t vibrate.”

Hanekoma worked with lightning speed to box up some food before wrenching open the capsule machine in the front. “Hoo boy, they cleaned me out. I shouldn’t have shown them the thing.”

“I was the one who asked you about it this morning, it’s my fault for reminding you about it,” Neku said shakily, as Hanekoma slammed it shut.

“Frankly, it’s a comedy of errors, but the main blame is on Star and Moon’s Reapers. If they followed them downstairs, we wouldn’t be in this mess. They’d be separated, but they wouldn’t have to worry about interdimensional noise.”

“So, what can we do?” Neku asked, as Hanekoma put the food in a cardboard tray, siding it on Neku’s lap.

“Search, your team’s Reapers will follow.”

“Yep,” Hana said. “We’ll text if we find them.”

“And what if…. they’re not people anymore?”

“You’ll have to break character and try and put them back together… if there’s anything left to save. Or You-Know-Who. I’d do it but….” Hanekoma shrugged his shoulders. “A little bit incapable for the near future.”

“So, find and let Hana call in… or incapacitate and try to save.” Neku looked up at Hanekoma. “Come with us.”

“I can’t kiddo. I’m stuck here. Unless you want to quit now and give me permission.”

Neku gripped the armrests of the chair, frowning, almost growling at the situation.

“Told you last night, you can drop the charade, kiddo, you’ve seen enough. This isn’t your fight. Or it is, but it’s going to be your first job to discipline those two Reapers. And don’t say you won’t, they endangered their partners from their negligence.”

“I’m… I’m going to be stubborn,” Neku said through clenched teeth. “If we find Star and Moon’s Noise I’ll call it off. Only if. Otherwise, I’ll play as normal and deal with the Reapers this weekend.”

Hanekoma inhaled sharply. “Can’t stop you, kid. Can only tell you that you’re being extraordinarily stupid.”

“Could I find them faster as an angel?”

Hanekoma frowned. “You could fly, but that’s probably the only advantage. You don’t know how to rapidly phase through all of Hachioji’s Noise planes yet, right?”

Neku took a deep inhale, looking down at his feet. “Then I’m doing it like this. Nothing we can do until they’re found.”

Hanekoma closed his eyes and nodded. “Suppose so.”

“C’mon Hana, let’s roll.”

She groaned.

* * *

“Mr. H, come with us,” Momo said as he held the door open for Neku to wheel himself down the ramp.

“Told you, I can’t,” Hanekoma chided.

Momo shuffled forward, reaching through the threshold, until she felt his arm, and pulled.

“Yeow!” she shrieked, dropping her cane, shaking out her hands.

“I told you, I’m trapped,” Hanekoma said, sadly, looking past her to Neku. “Go. You’re wasting time.”

Momo held out an arm as she stepped back, and Ace took it. “What did he say?” Ace asked.

“When Momo grabbed Dad’s arm to pull him out, they both got shocked on some purple barrier,” Neku explained, wheeling apace Ace and Momo’s brisk walk.

“Ah,” Ace said, mind elsewhere.

“What’s on your mind?” Momo snipped. “Mad that you can’t get that dragon aaaaaall the way back on the other side of the city to move so you can reincarnate?”

Ace froze; Momo almost tripped on her heels from the sudden stop. “No, I’m mad at myself for even thinking that that’s more important.”

Momo’s fingers twisted on her cane.

“I… I’ve heard something before,” Neku offered, through the fog. “Your first thought is how you were conditioned to think. Your stereotypes, your gut reaction. It’s how you react to that thought that says who you are.”

“So Ace is only a little bit of a self-absorbed sociopath, got it,” Momo snorted out.

“No, he grew up like that and is trying to do better.”

Ace scanned the street, wrinkling his nose at the comments, though he did have the decency to not keep pushing while he was ahead. “Small band of monsters incoming,” he noted dryly. “Straight ahead.”

Neku closed his eyes. “Momo, you said you smelled us all yesterday. Does anything smell like the sisters?”

“No.”

Neku gripped his chair, surging forward on the power of his lava as he spun and barreled forward to the mass of shikigami, literally bowling them over until the lava pulled them under, shrieks escaping under his wheels as the asphalt burped up a few talismans.

Once the pavement settled, Neku wheeled back to the group, Ace eyeing him warily. “ ** _Someone_** has been practicing.”

“Actually,” Neku admitted sheepishly. “I’ve been holding back a little. I didn’t want people to know I’d done this before, but right now… right now Star and Moon need us. If they turn into monsters, I’ll feel responsible.”

Momo and Ace both turned to Neku. “Responsible?” Momo choked out. “ ** _You_**?”

“You’re the only one who hasn’t ffff-who hasn’t screwed up,” Ace said, softening.

“Mr. H said ‘fuck’,” Momo said with a grin, elbowing where she thought Ace was standing and jabbing him in the forearm.

“I’m not going to encourage it,” Ace frowned.

“But you encourage yelling in front of children.”

“And you encourage snide remarks and blatant disregard for your own life.”

“So?”

Neku’s face fell. “Can the two of you stop bickering? Ace, we need your eyes. Momo, we need your nose. And I’ll take care of the monsters.”

“I-” Momo started. “You sound like my little brother. He’s the responsible one. Yeah. Of course, Sakura.”

Ace exhaled. “I’ll hold. For now. But we’re having that conversation back in the shop, young lady. If you tell me why you don’t want to live, well, maybe it’s a solvable problem.”

“It’s not,” Momo retorted. “But… I don’t want to keep you from your quote-en-quote ‘ ** _responsibilities’_**.”

“You could stand to lose the sass.”

“You could stand to stop trying to dad me.”

“Both of you! **_Focus_**!” Neku cried out. He was so glad he only ever had to deal with one partner at a time in Shibuya. He couldn’t even imagine what he’d do with two Joshuas at the same time.

* * *

“Alexa, time remaining,” Momo barked.

“Five minutes.”

Neku exhaled through his nose. “Nothing.”

“I…” Ace started. “What do we do?”

“You’re the one who has the bright ideas,” Momo snipped. “I’m just the gun. Aim me and let me rip.”

“Momo, you’re not that and you know it,” Ace sighed, turning away from her and Neku. “I… yes, I was trying to use you, but only in so much as getting another shot at life.”

“What would have happened if we got to the end and then had to… fight each other to get a second shot, or some bullshit?” Momo folded her arms across her chest and fiddled with the hourglass tied into her obi, shaking it as if it would grant her extra time. When she let go, the device spun back to its original position, the last of the grains slipping downward at an alarming pace.

“I would have made sure it was me,” Ace admitted. “In the end, that’s all. And it doesn’t help that you don’t want to go back, and Sakura’s family is here. If anything, I should have even **_less_** of a reason to care. And yet…”

“You’re worried for them,” Neku piped in. “Star and Moon, I mean.”

“Maybe because I can’t fix my own life,” Ace admitted wistfully. “It looks good on paper, sure. Successful politician, beautiful wife. But all I really feel I want to do is just spend time with my son, government and the rest of my family be damned. But at this point, all I can do is politics, and I need to keep the money in to keep him comfortable. If there’s another way, I don’t see it. I envy you two. Momo, you don’t have anything left behind… and Sakura? You seem made for this place. I wish you nothing but good fortune.”

“What are you saying, Ace?” Momo asked.

“I’m saying… I think I give up,” he admitted quietly. “Moon and Star are gone, and you two have no desire to go back to the land of the living, no? I can’t strike this out on my own.”

Momo walked forward, until her cane met foot. She reached out and grabbed Ace’s hand. “Just because I don’t want to go, doesn’t mean I won’t help you,” she said fiercely. “Just stop drilling it in your head that you need to drag me back. That’s all.”

Neku nodded. “Who said I wasn’t going to help you? Just because my dad is here doesn’t mean I’m not going to help you. Your son must be worried.”

“What? **_Why would you even_**?”

“Because we’re friends?” Neku ask-answered. Both Ace and Momo frowned, Neku verbally backpedaling. “Partners, at the very least. I **_promised_**. I’m not going to not help someone just because I don’t get anything out of it. That’s not cool.”

Momo nodded. “Tomorrow, we go back to work, the three of us. We’ll get you your audience with Himiko. Just… don’t drag me inside. Fair?”

Ace turned to answer, as the two of them clacked as wooden charms on the ground.

* * *

Quietly, Neku gathered up Momo and Ace, carefully tying them into his obi without touching the wooden parts. The day had been rough enough. Reliving their lives would be too much.

**_What now?_ **

Neku flung his neck around before remembering Hana was ghosting him. Literally. He shrugged in his chair, before hollering aloud.

“Miss Sayuri? Miss Sayuri? Are you there? I want to keep looking for Moon and Star, if I can.”

 ** _She’s not here. And they’re still not found_** , Hana supplied. **_Just wait. She’s on her way here. Momo and Ace’s partners just left to go search from the air, but… Moon and Star, if they did survive, are just going to be pieces of wood the size of your hand._**

 ** _I need to find out what pins they bought_** , Neku thought back. **_Maybe a magic suppression one? Invisibility?_**

 ** _Could be, I don’t know what Mr. H stocks that machine with. The Reapers don’t use it_**.

Neku frowned, rocking back and forth on his wheels, scanning through the fog impatiently. There wasn’t much he could see on the Noise plane; Hana would have better visibility than he.

He hoped Haniel had the decency to stick her hands in the mess, but, in his heart-of-hearts, he doubted she’d step in.

Neku let out a shaky exhale and waited.

* * *

“Chin up, child,” Sayuri hollered from the gloom. “Let’s get you home.”

“To the dorms? Or my dad?” Neku asked, eyebrow raised as Sayuri slowly morphed into view through the thick choke of purple fog.

Sayuri looked a little surprised, blinking from the question. “Unless you don’t want to go back to the café?”

“No, no, it’s not that…” Neku admitted, twiddling fingers. “I’ve figured by now you’re watching me and know what our group’s been doing. I want to stay and keep searching for my missing team-mates. It’s… about 2PM I think? I know it’s hard to tell in the fog, but I think the game started around noonish…”

“Mhmmm, it’s only 2, child. But you must be exhausted.” She pointed at the two talismans tied in Neku’s belt. “And yes, child. Your father warned me. Let’s get you back. A hot bath and some time with him would do you some good.”

 ** _I_** ** _warned her._** Hana thought to Neku with a bit of a chuckle mixed in the telepathy.

“You know…” Sayuri added, voice trailing. “It’s a bit unconventional, offering this, but… perhaps you’d rather just stay with him? I’m sure Himiko would be willing to let you. You’ve already been through this song and dance before. There’s no need to do it again in another place.”

“Maybe,” Neku said. “But I’m not leaving until I’ve found Moon and Star.”

“Sakura-chan, you know they’re just going to be bits of wood, don’t you? The shikigami won’t attack them like that, if they’re still people they’re safe until the game starts. The Faded won’t hurt them none, either. Let’s get you back, and let the adults handle it. When we find them, I promise we’ll bring them right-a-way to the café.”

Neku shook his head. “Please. Let me. At least for a few hours. ‘Till eight. Eight PM, and then I’ll go home.”

“Six whole hours, child? Truly?”

Neku nodded. “Six. Then I’ll go home.”

Sayuri deflated, grinding her teeth a little, a tusk twitching against her upper lip.

“End of the day, I can’t stop you, but child dear, you’ll catch cold like this.” Sayuri knelt, pulling her arms out of the braided hemp cord holding her pack in place, and removed a thick blanket out of her rattan bag, wrapping Neku in it.

Suddenly, with his arms stuck and unable to wheel around, he realized what Snuggies were for. Sayuri quickly noticed her own mistake, ripping two holes in the blanket for Neku’s arms to pull through. “Better, child? Let’s be off, then.”

“Us?”

“You think I’d let you search in this cold alone? Come, now, my brothers and sisters have already fanned out. I have a route to search. At least with the day over, they won’t move around. I’d take that over them being larger and mobile. Hop to.”

Neku wiped his eyes on his sleeve, not realizing that he’d been on the verge of tears. “T… thanks. Yeah. Let’s go.”

* * *

“Neku!”

Shiki flurried across the school yard, grinning a little when Vanitas didn’t turn around. “Nekuuuuu!” she called again, louder.

This time Vanitas flinched, nearly flinging himself around to compensate. “Don’t yell,” he hissed when she finally caught up to him.

“Sorry,” Shiki admitted, only a little apologetic. “You free today?”

“A fitting for the show? You know I’m just enough the wrong size.”

“Uh-uh. Just hang out, or something, you know? Don’t you hang out?”

Vanitas shrugged. “I mostly fight when I’m not working,” he admitted. “I take care of some of the really big Noise that’s not part of the game. Like… corrupt politicians or that sort of thing. It’s a big city, so some of the Noise gets big too.”

Shiki frowned. “No days off?”

Vanitas put up his hands defensively. “Not like that. I’m just on an extremely strict routine. I did it to myself. I needed it. After… what happened. I needed to give myself a little order.”

“Oh, yeah,” Shiki said. “I remember when everyone from your world was here. Beat, Rhyme, Neku and I watched some videos about the Kingdom Hearts story. You… had it rough, didn’t you?”

Vanitas just stared out to the city skyline. “It’s a bit scary to think that my life- the worst parts of it, no less, are just… on display here. I’m not sure if its better or worse that most people would think its fiction. Gabriel’s asked me if I want to play the games where I’m in them. I still don’t know. I’ve played a few about Sora. It’s weird. I saw bits and pieces of it when I was conscious in him, but to just…”

“I can change the subject,” Shiki offered.

Vanitas shook his head. “It’s fine. Well, not **_fine_** , but it’s good to talk things out for a change. It’s in the past either way, and I’m glad I’m here to make a fresh start.”

“How was day two?”

Vanitas smiled a bit at that. “Nice, honestly. The predictability helps. Maybe I’ll enroll in school for a semester, myself. Just to get some stability or something. I could pass for a high schooler without the glamor, right?”

“I keep forgetting you’re like a thousand years old.”

Vanitas shrugged. “I mean, it’s complicated.”

“Well, if you want to play high school, let’s do the whole shebang. Come on.”

“Come on **_where_**?”

“Harajuku!” Shiki said, hands on hips. “We’re high schoolers, it’s a Tuesday afternoon, and those fall chestnut crepes at Marion Café aren’t going to eat themselves! Then I’m dragging you all over for arcades and shopping.”

Vanitas chuckled and shook his head. “Does Neku always put up with this?”

“Ever since we became friends, yes,” Shiki said warmly. “Come on, we’re burning daylight here.”

* * *

“Slow down, Vanitas, nobody’s taking it from you,” Shiki chided, watching what looked like Neku’s face scarf down his least favorite food.

“Shorry,” Vanitas admitted sheepishly, mouth partially full, wiping the cheesecake bit off his nose. “Bad habits die hard.”

Shiki eyed him, taking a bite of her own filled with chestnut custard. “Do Reapers even need to eat? I know when I was dead, I didn’t have to… it just felt nice.”

Vanitas shrugged. “Technically? No, I don’t have to. I do get hungry, though. It helps manage our powers. And… it just… like you said, it’s **_nice_**. I didn’t have a lot of nice.”

Shiki nodded. “I… didn’t either. Not as bad as you… not by a long shot but…”

“This isn’t a competition,” Vanitas offered. “Just because I had it real bad doesn’t invalidate what you had.”

Shiki bit her crepe, giving herself time to think. “Single mom, barely making ends meet. I never had a lot. I sewed up all my old clothes, and when they weren’t good anymore, I turned them into toys. Mr. Mew,” she said, gesturing to the plush leaning out of her schoolbag with her unburdened hand. “He was made from an old sweater. It’s easier now, I guess that’s what happens when you have dead people in important places. I have an -ahem- scholarship, so Mom’s not working so much. And I got a part time job sewing samples for Natural Puppy.”

“The pastel shop over in Cadoi?”

“Mhm,” Shiki agreed, polishing off the snack. “I know it’s only because of Joshua, but he did say once I was in, I was going to live or die on my own merits. If they let me go, he wasn’t bailing me out.”

“And?”

“It’s weird seeing my clothes in a shop window.”

“Same.”

Shiki practically jumped. “WHAT,” she squealed.

“It’s not much, but I have a waistcoat up in Lapin,” he admitted sheepishly. “I’m still in training, though. It’ll be a while yet.”

“A while my ass! Come on, I want to see it,” Shiki grabbed Vanitas’s arm, and he seized up.

She let go, looking at him worriedly. “Vanitas, oh god, I’m so, so sorry.”

Vanitas shook like a leaf, opened his wings, and shot off like a jet.

* * *

He didn’t realize where he was until he’d landed, his body had flung him halfway across the district on autopilot. When he finally recognized where he was, he sighed, sat, and shot a text to Shiki.

/sry I

/no need, Shiki replied quickly. /just glad ur ok

/ish

/do u want me to come, or?

/can you get on the roof of 104?

/legally?

Vanitas smiled. /thx for the crepe

/you paid

/gabe paid

/ill see you tomorrow, then ?

/… yeah

“Fancy seeing you here.”

Vanitas slipped his phone in a pocket and looked up. “Kariya.”

“Girl troubles?”

Vanitas rolled his eyes.

“Boy troubles?” Kariya needled.

“Me troubles,” Vanitas admitted.

Kariya nodded, slinging his legs over the side of the building. “I heard about yours. Wild.”

“How fast does gossip travel?”

Kariya slipped his phone out, holding it forward, to screencaps from Kingdom Hearts. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see the rest of your group.”

“Not really mine,” Vanitas admitted. “Other than Sora, maybe.”

Kariya shrugged his shoulders and pulled a drink can out from one of his many pouches in his jeans, popping the tab with a crisp hiss. “Okay, then, different train of thought. How’s Josh? You live with him, right?”

“None of your business.”

“All of my business,” Kariya replied, pulling a chewed-down lollipop stick out of his mouth and incinerating it with a snap of his fingers before chugging half his drink. “Might surprise you, but I’m the oldest Reaper in this city. I’ve been in Shibuya since the family castle was built.”

Vanitas just blinked.

“That was about nine-hundred years ago,” Kariya said, draining the last of the can. “Back when this place was little more than mud huts and a swamp. Josh’s been Composer since… eh. Three hundred years? Maybe a bit less. Before here, he was the Composer of somewhere in Kyoto. Gion, I think.”

“That’s a city in the south, right?”

“Mhmmm.”

Vanitas shook his head. “Us two being the same age doesn’t mean I’ll rat on your boss.”

“I’m not asking to rat. I’m asking if he’s okay. I know we grunts don’t see him that much, unless there’s a problem, but he’s really been avoiding everyone ever since the whole Shinjuku thing.”

Vanitas looked down at the city below, slowly enveloping in a warm glow as the sun set and the millions of lights twinkled to life. “He’s… busy. I’m not sure it’s a good thing. I know I’ve stuffed my schedule to keep myself moving, but… even I’ll schedule time to sit and do things like look at the lights or take a hot bath. I think he’s just barely doing more than working and sleeping, and angels don’t sleep much at all.”

“Is he doing any art?”

“If he is, it’s not at home.”

Kariya frowned. “That’s a problem.”

“I know.” Vanitas could feel his powers sap from him on bad days and uninspired ones. It had to be worse for the angels.

“Do me a favor, get him to sing or something. The city… it doesn’t feel right. When a Composer is away too long, or if there’s no inspiration… things can happen. Bad things. He seems to like you, and that’s a high compliment, coming from him.”

“Maybe if I found out what was eating him?” Vanitas offered.

“You think you can go for the root? Be my guest. But Joshua’s a hard nut to crack. He’d sooner dance around the issue than tell you what was wrong. Always has been like that.”

“Oh, I know how to dance, myself,” Vanitas admitted, shaking out his wings as he peered over the edge of the roof.

Kariya raised an eyebrow and stood up next to him, flexing his tiny but powerful Reaper wings of his own. “I smell a race.”

“Oh? What does a race smell like?”

“ ** _This_** ,” Kariya said with a smirk, jumping off the building with both middle fingers aimed at the black-haired Reaper.

* * *

“Sakura-chan. It’s nearly time,” Sayuri said, quietly, putting a cloven hoof-hand on his shoulder. “Let’s get you home.”

“’Nearly’ isn’t eight,” Neku protested, through a deafening stomach growl.

He blinked.

It was a momentary flash of insight, but he felt it.

Neku carefully rolled his wheelchair backwards, and the hair on the back of his neck stood up.

Sayuri and Neku had searched all of one side of Route 166 to where it became Route 16, the road leading outbound between the city center and Tangi. But now, they were off the side, on one of the man-made riverbeds that sloped down in bits of gravel and concrete. Neku carefully split off and rolled down the floodplain, among bits of washed up broken beer bottles and patches of stubborn weed and grass.

They were close.

It made sense, Neku surmised. He could hear the Yaji River’s pleasant rush easier than he could see through the dense purple haze the Noise plane blanketed them in. Moon and Star were simply following the river back to the dra-

- ** _CRACK_**.

* * *

“Child?”

“I… I think I found them, Miss Sayuri,” Neku called out into the rapidly blackening gloom as he pulled the dead man’s switch on his restraints and tumbled out of the chair onto the bracken below. Scrambling, and pulling himself along on upper body strength, he felt the first ribbon, pulling a thankfully perfectly fine and intact wooden charm out from just to the side of his chair’s left wheel.

That had been too close for comfort. The crack had to have been a discarded can or bottle, then.

Or, with his rotten luck, as he felt around for the second string, it was the other sibling of the pair.

Star’s or Moon’s- he didn’t know which- came up from the wheel splintered in a chunk. Neku inhaled sharply, holding the shattered charm by his pointer finger from the ribbon as if it were a particularly venomous snake he had to handle, hissed, and patted the ground for the rest.

-dark

Sounds of laughter and clinking glasses.

A party?

Neku blinked around, looking down at his hands. They were narrow, with long fingers and polished red nails.

Star. He was Star. Or, reliving some memory of hers. He had to… had to let go of the piece of wood. He didn’t want to get sucked in to her entire life, or what fragment of it he was holding.

A crash?

Star dropped her drink, Neku merely dragged along for the ride by the tug of events long past as legs that were too long carried him- her- them?- up stairs in an apartment in downtown Hachioji. Neku could see the five-story Daiso out the window from a landing, Star and Moon lived barely a block away from Hanekoma’s café.

Her chest pounded from the exertion, but all Neku could think was how small their world was as Star sped to the roof, occasionally jittering past a step or even an entire floor as Neku tagged along in splintered fragments.

He needed to… needed to let go…

“Uchi,” Star snapped, breathless, as she broke her way on the roof.

Moon. Neku wished he could close his eyes or turn away, but it was a memory, something long happened.

Or short, by the look of what he saw. Her body, purple in places, slumped on the concrete as a large, intoxicated young man gunned straight for Star, grabbing her by the neck and-

He managed to let go. Neku managed to let go. He wasn’t sure about the other ‘he’ in the equation.

Frankly, he didn’t want to think about that too much. He’d intruded on the night Moon had died, and by the looks of it, possibly Star, too, life cut short by some drunk asshole at a house party. It was too little and too much and Neku felt himself gasping for air he didn’t actually need.

Neku stared uncomfortably down at his hand, scratched from the pebbles and castoff at the riverbank, a shattered beer bottle not far afield of his wheelchair. He heard the sound of something sliding down concrete, looking up just in time to see Sayuri hop on one foot not far from him, grumbling guttural nonsense as she rubbed the sole of her zori with a hand, green sparks coming from her it while she yanked something from her hemp-woven sandal.

“Child!” she screeched out, hopping over to Neku sprawled in the riverbank’s mess of castoff, holding out an eerily glowing firefly-lit lantern.

“I… I’m okay, Miss Sayuri. I let myself down out of my chair, I didn’t fall.”

“Don’t scare me, child. Come now, let’s get you home.”

“I found them,” Neku said, shakily, holding up Moon’s charm, before slotting it into his obijime.

“And the other?”

Neku looked down at the ground, the chunks and splinters of Star’s charm scattered in a small pile around and under his chair.

Sayuri fell over in shock. “No…” she hissed. “No… no… no.” Quickly, se slapped herself across the face and sprung up. “Sakura-chan. Stay. Where. You. Are. Love. I… I’ll be right back. I’m going to go and give your father a quick call.”

Neku heard the crunch of stone and glass under her feet as Sayuri hoofed out of earshot.

**_Can you fix it?_ **

Neku turned his head left and right, before a featherlight touch ghosted his shoulder.

 ** _I probably could… if I even knew how_** , he admitted, his stomach growling in protest as he shivered. The autumn wind was picking up and the world was almost black at the bottom of the riverbed, far from the city center. Hachioji was too large for its own good.

Neku sighed and pulled his legs under himself, scraping one on glass to add some extra injury to the insult. **_Haniel? Haniel. I know you can hear me. You win, you know. You won, I lost, and I need your help._**

Neku waited quietly, listening to the wind rustle the shallow river water and the occasional plop of a fish or two. If she heard his plea, she wasn’t much for caring.

Eventually, he heard the crunch of approaching feet, catching the ball of enclosed fireflies before the green-lit tusks of Sayuri’s face. It was like something straight out of a horror film, the kind with the rubber masks that were just on the wrong side of the uncanny valley. The mask part wasn’t far off, at least.

“Child, I’m bringing you home.”

“And… and my dad? He can fix her?” Neku knew Hanekoma could… in the past tense of **_could_**. As Producer of Shibuya, he’d fixed Rhyme and Beat before; this couldn’t have been worse. All the pieces were there, and she hadn’t been attacked by Noise, just Neku’s own shortcomings. But with his power stripped to Composer levels, Neku wasn’t too sure. Megumi hadn’t had the power to revive anyone, after all.

Sayuri frowned. “We adults’ll deal with the repercussions. It’s not for you, love.”

That was a no, then. And if Neku couldn’t and Hanekoma couldn’t…

 ** _Haniel please_**, Neku begged, harder. **_You’re the only one who can save her_**.

 ** _Am I now?_** Her cold laugh bounced around in his skull, giving him a headache. **_Do you want me to save a woman who won’t even help your group?_**

 ** _Helping someone else isn’t done in the hopes you get something from it. It’s not a transaction._** Neku winced as Sayuri bent over to scoop him up, checking for shards of glass and wood before depositing him in his chair.

**_Very well. But I’ll decide on the punishment._ **

**_For whom?_** Neku asked, eyes flicking around. **_The Reapers that abandoned Star and Moon?_**

Haniel’s laugh cracked through Neku; Sayuri hissed, pulling a hand away to blood. “Child, child, oh no, Hana break masquerade, support her, something’s wrong.”

Neku could barely keep his head upright. Haniel speaking to him in Angel cant with him as a common soul was going to tear him apart.

**_That’s your job, Neku. No. I mean a punishment for you._ **


End file.
